Wyss InstituteMedicine – Wyss Institute

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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Toward engineering a human kidney collecting duct system

Jessica Leff — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:50:56 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — The human kidney filters about a cup of blood every minute, removing waste, excess fluid, and toxins from it, while also regulating blood pressure, balancing important electrolytes, activating Vitamin D, and helping the body produce red blood cells. This broad range of functions is achieved in part via the kidney’s complex organization. In its outer region…

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Wyss Institute-led collaboration awarded by ARPA-H PRINT program to engineer off-the-shelf, universal, transplant-ready graft for liver failure

Jessica Leff — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 14:55:47 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — The majority of human illnesses are caused by damage to a single organ, like the liver, whose failure accounts for 2M deaths worldwide every year. Orthotopic transplants are the only curative therapy available, but the severe shortage of donor organs, which are reserved for the most severe cases, leaves millions of patients without an accessible solution.

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A CRISPR fingerprint of pathogenic C. auris fungi

Jessica Leff — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 13:45:36 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Infection with the pathogenic yeast fungus Candida auris (C. auris) can wreak havoc on the health of hospital patients and residents of nursing homes, especially those who are already weakened by other illnesses. The pathogen easily spreads and colonizes surfaces and objects where it can survive for weeks to months, and is often resistant to standard…

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First-in-human clinical trial of personalized, biomaterial-based cancer vaccine demonstrates feasibility, safety, and immune activation

Jessica Leff — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:11:46 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — The first-in-human phase I clinical trial assessing the feasibility and safety of WDVAX, an immunostimulatory biomaterial-based cancer vaccine, in a cohort of 21 patients with stage 4 metastatic melanoma, was concluded with positive outcomes that encourage future vaccine developments and trials to test them in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor…

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Prapela: from understanding infant breathing rhythms to treating newborn babies

Jessica Leff — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 17:50:12 +0000

Part of the Wyss Institute’s series on the positive, life-altering impact of federal research funding By Jessica Leff About half of premature infants suffer from sleep apnea, which involves pauses in their breathing. Apnea of prematurity can be life-threatening, as it lowers heart rates to dangerous levels, and can even be a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Conversely…

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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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Beating cancer cells at their own game by stepping on their cGAS

Jessica Leff — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:30:44 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Cancer cells develop various strategies to paralyze immune cells to evade their attack in the complex tumor microenvironment (TME). Using one such strategy, they cripple their own production of a small signaling molecule known as cGAMP, which, if released into the TME, can be taken up by immune cells that then build up a first line of defense against cancer…

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Biomaterial vaccines to make implanted orthopedic devices safer

Jessica Leff — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 19:55:42 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Patients with implanted medical devices like orthopedic joint replacements, pacemakers, and artificial heart valves run a small but significant risk that these devices get infected with bacterial pathogens. This starts them on a burdensome path requiring “redo” (revision) surgeries, prolonged antibiotic treatments, or in severe cases amputation.

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Crossing the barrier: Wyss Brain Targeting Program is delivering on its promise

Seth Kroll — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:18:46 +0000

By Seth Kroll (BOSTON) — Launched in 2019 as an ambitious idea, the Wyss Brain Targeting Program was designed to address a critical challenge in neuroscience and brain health: how to safely and effectively deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The BBB is a tightly regulated gateway that protects the brain from toxins and pathogens but also prevents nearly all large-molecule drugs…

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