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Rapid Metabolite-Sensing System for Blood Lactate
In emergency medicine, blood lactate levels are a reliable real-time indicator of the severity and mortality risk of conditions that occur as a result of poor blood circulation and oxygen supply to organs and tissues (hypoperfusion), such as in patients with sepsis, cardiac arrest, stroke, major trauma, cystic fibrosis and other conditions. Lactate levels also... -
Bone Marrow-Like Scaffolds for Accelerating Immune Reconstitution
Bone marrow transplants containing hematopoietic stem cells from an immune-compatible (“allogeneic”) donor can cure patients with otherwise fatal blood disorders including multiple myeloma and leukemias by reconstituting their entire immune systems after chemotherapy. However, following such a “hematopoietic stem cell transplantation” (HSCT), the restoration of T cell immunity – which depends on the production of... -
eRapid: Multiplexed Electrochemical Sensors for Fast, Accurate, Portable Diagnostics
Handheld electrochemical sensors have revolutionized at-home medical testing for diabetics, but they have not yet been successfully applied to diagnosing other conditions. These sensors are based on the activity of an enzyme, and there are only a limited number of enzymes that can be used to detect biomarkers of human disease. An alternative, much more... -
eRNA: Controlled Enzymatic RNA Oligonucleotide Synthesis
Synthetic RNA oligonucleotides designed as specific successions of the four nucleobases A, U, G, and C that mimic naturally occurring RNA species are the key components of diverse RNA-based therapies. These include RNA therapeutics that can partially or completely turn off the expression of disease-causing genes (antisense and interfering RNAs), help replace or supplement dysfunctional... -
Liquid-Infused Tympanostomy Tubes
Acute middle ear infections affect more than 700 million people each year, with children often experiencing the most recurrent and severe symptoms due to their underdeveloped physiology. By the age of three, 25-40 % of children have had at least three episodes of acute middle ear infection, which is commonly accompanied by excess fluids accumulating... -
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... -
Bioplastics
Humans have produced roughly 8,300 million metric tons of plastic since the 1950s, the vast majority of which has been thrown out as waste. Only about 9% of that plastic waste has been recycled and 12% has been incinerated, leaving 79% of it to accumulate on our land and oceans, harming the environment, the food... -
Liquid-Gated Membranes for Filtration
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... -
MAGE: Multiplex Automated Genomic Engineering
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...