Discipline: Chemical Engineering

Technologies 6

• Nanoarchitectures for air purification
  Illnesses caused by air pollution are the third-leading cause of death in developing nations, and over 5 million people worldwide die every year from air pollution exposure. Catalytic converters, the most widely used air purification devices, convert the toxic gases and pollutants produced by fuel combustion into benign chemicals before the exhaust is released into...
• T cell traps
  T cells, a subtype of white blood cells, play key roles in cell-mediated immunity, be it to fight infections and cancer or, when corrupted, to react against the body’s own cells in more than 80 autoimmune diseases, including type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and others. However, isolating disease-related T cells from the body...
• DNA Nanostructures for Drug Delivery
  Researchers at the Wyss Institute have developed two methods for building arbitrarily shaped nanostructures using DNA, with a focus on translating the technology towards nanofabrication and drug delivery applications. One proprietary nanofabrication technique, called “DNA-brick self-assembly,” uses short, synthetic strands of DNA that work like interlocking Lego® bricks. It capitalizes on the ability to program...
• Phase-Separating Liquid Gated Membranes
  Just like pores in living organisms that control the absorption and excretion of fluids, gases and solids in response to their environments, flow-gating membranes have proved very useful for many mechanical systems, such as gas and liquid separators, dialysis machines, or open heart bypass pumps. But conventional approaches to create synthetic “gated pores” within those...
• SLIPS (Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces)
  The need for an inexpensive, super-repellent surface cuts across a vast swath of societal sectors—from refrigeration and architecture, to medical devices and consumer products. Most state-of-the-art liquid repellent surfaces designed in the last decade are modeled after lotus leaves, which are extremely hydrophobic due to their rough, waxy surface and the physics of their natural...
• Multiplex Automated Genomic Engineering (MAGE)
  Developed at the Wyss Institute, MAGE harnesses the natural principles of evolution to do all the heavy lifting of genome design and automates these steps to dramatically shorten the time scale required to produce microbes with specialized functionalities for manufacturing, sensing and therapeutic applications. Genome engineering has a wide range of applications, from developing new...

News 42

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• Press Release Harvard’s Wyss Institute commences multidisciplinary project to identify mechanisms and means to induce a state of suspended animation
  December 17, 2018
• Press Release Microscopic “sunflowers” for better solar panels
  December 4, 2018
• Press Release Solar panels for yeast cell biofactories
  November 15, 2018

Multimedia 21

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  Video/Animation
  Light-driven fine chemical production in yeast biohybrids
  Wyss Institute Core Faculty member Neel Joshi explains the concept of yeast biohybrids and how they can be used to harvest energy from light to drive the production of fine chemicals. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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  Video/Animation
  Catalytic Nanoarchitectures for Clean Air
  The Wyss Institute is developing a new type of coating for catalytic converters that, inspired by the nanoscale structure of a butterfly’s wing, can dramatically reduce the cost and improve the performance of air purification technologies, making them more accessible to all.  Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University  

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  Audio/Podcast
  Disruptive: Cancer Vaccine and Immuno-Materials
  Immunotherapy – treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to help fight disease – has groundbreaking and life-saving implications. In an effort to make immunotherapy more effective, Wyss Institute researchers are developing new immuno-materials, which help modulate immune cells to treat or diagnose disease. In this episode of Disruptive, Dave Mooney, Wyss Core Faculty...

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  Audio/Podcast
  Slug Slime Inspires Scientists To Invent Sticky Surgical Glue
  Slug Slime Inspires Scientists To Invent Sticky Surgical Glue was originally broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered on July 27, 2017. This story features Wyss Institute Technology Development Fellow Jianyu Li. The original broadcast story can be found here.

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  Video/Animation
  Wyss Focus: Immuno-Materials
  Wyss Core Faculty, Dave Mooney, explains our new Immuno-Materials Focus Area, which adds a new dimension to immunotherapy in that it harnesses materials to make treatments more efficient and effective. These material-based systems are capable of modulating immune cells and releasing them into the body where they can treat diseases.

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  Video/Animation
  3D Printing Ceramic Foam
  This video shows the 3D printing process that adds layer upon layer of the foam link to create a 3D porous ceramic honeycomb pattern. This new capability is an important step toward generating porous materials for lightweight structures, thermal insulation, tissue scaffolds and other applications. Credit: Lori Sanders