Wyss InstituteGenome Engineering – Wyss Institute

Bioengineering a world beyond plastics

Jessica Leff — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:00:06 +0000

By Seth Kroll (BOSTON) — In fewer than 200 years, plastic has become so deeply embedded in everyday life that it is impossible to envision society without it. Inexpensive, adaptable, and durable, plastics are indispensable from food packaging and textiles to medical and electronic devices. But this durability and ubiquity have made plastic dependency a growing global challenge…

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Nucleic Acid Delivery Consortium

Mariel Schoen — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 15:13:09 +0000

Nucleic acid therapies are emerging as a revolutionary class of medicines. Using engineered DNA or RNA molecules, they treat diseases at their genetic source, thus offering potential cures for a large variety of disorders, ranging from genetic disorders to cancers and infectious diseases. Different technologies, including mRNA, short interfering RNAs (siRNA), antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs)…

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Wyss Institute appoints three new Associate Faculty members: Ahmad Khalil, Jarad Mason, and Ting Wu

Jessica Leff — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 14:50:20 +0000

By Jessica Leff The Wyss Institute is proud to welcome three new Associate Faculty members: Ahmad (Mo) Khalil, Ph.D., Jarad Mason, Ph.D., and Chao-ting (Ting) Wu, Ph.D. Each has a history of collaborating with the Institute’s researchers. Their diverse expertise and fresh perspectives will further strengthen the Wyss’ innovative and collaborative ecosystem and enable pioneering advances in…

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Unravel: from tools for studying pathogen tolerance to hope for rare disease patients

Jessica Leff — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 17:49:56 +0000

Part of the Wyss Institute’s series on the positive, life-altering impact of federal research funding By Jessica Leff There are approximately 350 million people in the world with a rare disease, including 25-30 million Americans. About 80% of the disorders are genetic, and 95% of them have no FDA-approved treatments. Finding an effective drug is no small task; after an expensive and long…

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George Church on Widespread Genomic Sequencing, Xenotransplantation, and Shepherding Change

Jessica Leff — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 20:46:55 +0000

In this interview, GenomeWeb speaks to Core Faculty member George Church, Ph.D., who is also a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. A thinker, inventor, and collaborator extraordinaire, Church’s technologies and personality catalyzed the Human Genome Project, the Personal Genome Project, and more than 50 biotech startups…

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Recapitulating egg and sperm development in the dish

Jessica Leff — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 17:55:46 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — More than one-sixth of adults around the world experience infertility in their lifetime. There is a high unmet need not only for increased access to affordable, high-quality fertility care for those in need but, importantly, also for new biomedical solutions that can address the root causes of infertility. Some of the earliest causes of infertility go back to…

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George Church: Embracing Outliers in Science and in Life

Jessica Leff — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 13:38:53 +0000

George Church, Ph.D., is a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute and a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School. He is a pioneer in synthetic biology and personalized genomics. In 2017, Time magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In addition to being a scientist, Church is also a prolific serial entrepreneur. He has co-founded over 50 biotech startups…

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The End of Aging—And Extinction | George Church, Ph.D. on Longevity, Dire Wolves, and Woolly Mammoths

Jessica Leff — Tue, 13 May 2025 19:32:54 +0000

What if aging was optional—and extinction reversible? In this episode of Ignition Sequence, Wyss Core Faculty member and geneticist and biotech pioneer, George Church, Ph.D., joins host Dylan Bohbot to explore the frontiers of gene therapy, de-extinction, and the future of human health. A founding scientist behind the Human Genome Project, and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences and Rejuvenate Bio…

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The Dish Live with special guest George Church

Jessica Leff — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 15:24:53 +0000

In this very special live taping of “The Dish,” host Johannes Fruehauf sits down with renowned geneticist and Wyss Core Faculty member, George Church, Ph.D. Widely known for discovering the first direct genomic sequencing method, Church has reshaped the world of genetics. A professor at Harvard and MIT and a founding professor at the Wyss Institute, Church has co-founded over 50 startups—15+ of…

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SeqVerify: A New Easily Accessible Tool for Comprehensive Cell Line Quality Assessment – The Stem Cell Report

Jessica Leff — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 16:54:17 +0000

During the last decade, advances in genome editing and pluripotent stem cell (PSC) culture have let researchers generate edited PSC lines to study a wide variety of biological questions. However, abnormalities in cell lines such as aneuploidy, mutations, on-target and off-target editing errors, and microbial contamination can arise during PSC culture or due to undesired editing outcomes.

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