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Tooling up to diagnose ocean health

Jessica Leff — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:55:24 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Oceanic ecosystems are increasingly threatened by global warming, which causes coral bleaching, species migration, and, through the loss of habitats and biodiversity, food web disruptions on major scales. Also, pollutants such as plastics and other marine debris, wastewater, and chemical runoffs, including oil spills, cause major ecosystem disruptions.

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PFASense: Fast, In-Field Testing for Forever Chemicals

Jessica Leff — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 13:53:50 +0000

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of “forever chemicals,” are synthetic compounds that have been used since the 1940s to manufacture products like nonstick cookware, firefighting foams, food packaging, and many more. While they have helpful properties, PFAS do not readily degrade in the environment or the human body. As a result, they have accumulated in drinking water, soil…

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Hani Sallum on Engineering Prototypes for Researchers, Patients, and the Planet

Jessica Leff — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:00:46 +0000

The Humans of the Wyss (HOW) series features members of the Wyss community discussing their work, the influences that shape them as professionals, and their collaborations at the Wyss Institute and beyond. Hani Sallum is always tinkering, whether he’s creating an eight-foot-tall robot costume to show off at a convention or designing a carbon dioxide-powered seawater collection system to…

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Justin Scott on Engineering Proteins for Real-World Impact

Jessica Leff — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 15:05:06 +0000

The Humans of the Wyss (HOW) series features members of the Wyss community discussing their work, the influences that shape them as professionals, and their collaborations at the Wyss Institute and beyond. Years ago, Justin Scott was working in finance when a conversation with a friend who cared deeply about their science-related job prompted him to make a change. Chasing that same job…

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HydroPEF: Portable Off-the-Grid Water Purification

admin — Wed, 01 May 2024 05:48:43 +0000

Globally, more than 2 billion people are forced to use a drinking water source that is contaminated with bacteria, parasites, and other pathogens, and an estimated 502,000 people die each year from diarrhea as a result of unsafe water. While a majority of the world has access to improved water sources, many are often contaminated; thus, a need for effective water treatment at the point of…

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Emily Stoler on Developing Sustainable Solutions

Jessica Leff — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 16:01:24 +0000

The Humans of the Wyss (HOW) series features members of the Wyss community discussing their work, the influences that shape them as professionals, and their collaborations at the Wyss Institute and beyond. When Emily Stoler was eighteen years old, she described her dreams for the future to a taxi driver. Now, after studying chemistry and working across academia and industry…

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Plastic Degradation Company, Breaking, Emerges from Stealth with Naturally-Derived Solution to Degrade Multiple Plastics with $10.5M in Seed Funding

Jessica Leff — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:00:50 +0000

(Boston, MA and Dallas, TX) – Breaking, a plastic degradation and synthetic biology company, gestated at Colossal Biosciences based on a core discovery out of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, launches today with the announcement of their discovery, X-32, which they will develop to address the global plastics crisis. In its natural state…

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Our Sustainable Future

Jessica Leff — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 16:43:08 +0000

The Wyss Institute is developing sustainable materials and devices to ensure a bright future and a healthy planet for future generations to inherit. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard…

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Plastivores: Plastic-Degrading Super-Microbes and Enzymes

Jessica Leff — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:21:30 +0000

More than 360 million tons of plastic waste are generated around the world every year, presenting a global threat to our environment and human health. There is presently little or no way for ecosystems to decompose most commercial plastics, with more than 75% of waste plastic remaining either in landfills, soils, or in the oceans for decades. Plastics increasingly contaminate all environments and…

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Sustainable cooling technology heats up

Mariel Schoen — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 21:01:23 +0000

As average global temperatures continue to climb, the market for air conditioning is too: it’s estimated that worldwide demand for air conditioning will triple by 2050. If all those extra A/C units will use today’s standard, decades-old vapor compression technology, it could spell disaster for the planet. Not only does vapor compression consume massive amounts of electricity (increasing the…

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