Focus Area: Living Cellular Devices

Technologies 4

• Manufacturing biomolecules ‘on the go’
  Wyss Institute researchers have developed a biomolecular manufacturing method that can quickly and easily produce a wide range of vaccines, antimicrobial peptides and antibody conjugates while doing so anywhere, even in places without access to electrical power or refrigeration. The breakthrough could provide a life-saving workaround for making modern interventions available in remote areas. Today...
• Project ABBIE
  Over 15 million Americans are at risk of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction triggered by exposure to certain foods, materials, medications and insect bites. Every three minutes a food reaction sends someone to the emergency room. In most individuals, anaphylactic shock can be prevented by administering the counteracting drug, epinephrine. Yet, despite effective treatments, death from...
• Putting Biofilms to Work
  A team at the Wyss Institute sees biofilms as a robust new platform for designer nanomaterials that could treat inflammatory bowel diseases, clean up polluted rivers, manufacture pharmaceutical products, fabricate new textiles, and more. A novel protein engineering system called BIND, which stands for Biofilm-Integrated Nanofiber Display, could be the essential ingredient in tomorrow’s probiotic...
• Paper-based synthetic gene networks as a new diagnostic approach
  With the imminent threat of new pandemics and frequent disease outbreaks exemplified by the recent Ebola and Zika epidemics, there is a growing need for low-cost, easily deployable and simple-to-use diagnostic tools. The Wyss Institute has developed paper-based synthetic gene networks as a next generation diagnostic technology for use in global healthcare crises and patient...

News 51

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• Press Release Remembrance of things past – bacterial memory of gut inflammation
  May 29, 2017
• Press Release Scientists unveil CRISPR-based diagnostic platform
  April 13, 2017
• Press Release Renowned regenerative and developmental biologist Michael Levin of Tufts University joins Wyss Institute as Associate Faculty
  March 28, 2017

Multimedia 3

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  Audio/Podcast
  Disruptive: Rapid, Low-Cost Detection of Zika & Future Pandemics
  The rapid emergence of the Zika virus on the world stage calls for a detection system that is just as quick. In this episode of Disruptive, Wyss Core Faculty member and MIT professor Jim Collins and University of Toronto Assistant Professor Keith Pardee discuss how they developed a low cost, paper-based diagnostic platform that can...

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  Video/Animation
  Antibiotic Efficacy
  In this video, Wyss Institute Core Faculty member James Collins and Michael Lobritz explain how antibiotics can have vastly different effects on pathogenic bacteria and suggest potential implications for improving antibiotic treatments in infected patients. For more information, please visit our press release: Reenergizing Antibiotics in the War Against Infections Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard...

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  Video/Animation
  Programmable Paper: Advances in Synthetic Biology
  Wyss Institute scientists discuss the collaborative environment and team effort that led to two breakthroughs in synthetic biology that can either stand alone as distinct advances – or combine forces to create truly tantalizing potentials in diagnostics and gene therapies. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University.