Wyss InstitutePhysiology – Wyss Institute

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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Human Organ Chip technology sets stage for pan-influenza A CRISPR RNA therapies

Jessica Leff — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:55:54 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) – The Influenza A virus (IAV) has been the cause of six major flu pandemics, responsible for 50 to 100 million deaths globally. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that, despite seasonally updated vaccines, IAV infections still lead to 140,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 to 52,000 deaths annually. The development of antiviral treatments against IAV…

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Blood Clot Dx

admin — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:00:40 +0000

Blood clots can arise anywhere in the body, blocking blood flow and causing pain and other symptoms. The most serious types of clots, called deep vein thrombosis (DVT), typically form in the veins in the legs, and can break off and become lodged in a lung. This can cause a pulmonary embolism (PE), which is when blood flow to the lungs is prevented and can be fatal. The symptoms of PE resemble…

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Finding a Balance In Bipolar Disorder Through Drug Prediction and Organoid-Based Drug Screening

Jessica Leff — Wed, 07 May 2025 16:47:52 +0000

CircaVent is a high-throughput drug screening platform that combines predictive algorithms, preclinical models, and human brain organoids to efficiently identify and test drugs that could treat the underlying causes of bipolar disorder. CircaVent is initially focused on addressing the circadian rhythm disruptions that are a common hallmark of BD, and could dramatically speed up the process of…

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Modeling a devastating childhood disease on a chip

Mariel Schoen — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 14:55:26 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — Millions of children in low- and middle-income nations suffer from environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine that is the second leading cause of death of children younger than five years of age. EED is a devastating condition that is associated with malnutrition, stunted growth, and poor cognitive development…

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CircaVent: A Drug Discovery Platform for Mental Health Conditions

Jessica Leff — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 15:23:42 +0000

Mental illness affects many people around the world, and is often debilitating. Bipolar disorder (BD), for example, afflicts about nine million people in the US, or roughly 2% of the population, and nearly 83% of patients’ illness is classified as “severe,” meaning it dramatically impacts their quality of life. The only drug that is specifically approved by the FDA to treat BD is lithium…

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The immune system is very complicated, but now, it’s on a chip

Jessica Leff — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 17:50:16 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — To quote veteran science writer Ed Yong’s simple yet extremely accurate words in The Atlantic, “The immune system is very complicated.” As the COVID-19 pandemic had made abundantly clear, science still doesn’t fully understand the sophisticated defense mechanisms that protect us from microbe invaders. Why do some people show no symptoms when infected with SARS-CoV…

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A personalized exosuit for real-world walking

Jessica Leff — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 19:10:21 +0000

By Leah Burrows/SEAS Communications (CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — People rarely walk at a constant speed and a single incline. We change speed when rushing to the next appointment, catching a crosswalk signal, or going for a casual stroll in the park. Slopes change all the time too, whether we’re going for a hike or up a ramp into a building. In addition to environmental variably, how we walk is…

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Predicting influenza virus evolution in a human Lung Airway Chip

Jessica Leff — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 13:19:07 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) – Influenza virus was the cause of the flu pandemic of 1918 that killed over 20 million people world-wide, and different variants continue to cause new epidemic flu outbreaks every year that threaten the health and livelihoods of many. The Centers for Disease Control and Intervention (CDC) estimate that influenza has resulted in between 9 million and 45 million…

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Soft Robotic Glove for Neuromuscular Rehabilitation

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:34:39 +0000

The majority of people with neurological conditions, such as stroke and spinal cord injury, suffer from loss of motor function in one or both hands, which can greatly reduce their quality of life. Tasks often taken for granted become frustrating or nearly impossible due to tight and spastic muscles, reduced grasping strength, and general lack of coordination in the hand.

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