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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... -
DNA Nanotechnology Tools – From Design to Applications
DNA nanostructures with their potential for cell and tissue permeability, biocompatibility, and high programmability at the nanoscale level are promising candidates as new types of drug delivery vehicles, highly specific diagnostic devices, and tools to decipher how biomolecules dynamically change their shapes, and interact with each other and with candidate drugs. Wyss Institute researchers are... -
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... -
INSPECTR™: Direct-to-Consumer Molecular Diagnostic
Molecular diagnostics is the fastest growing segment of the global in vitro diagnostics market. There remains a gap, however, in providing this technology directly to consumers in a format that is as cost effective and as simple to use as a lateral flow immunoassay, like glucose and pregnancy tests. Scientists at the Wyss Institute have... -
abbieSense: Anaphylaxis Diagnostic
The molecule histamine plays a primary role in the anaphylaxis reaction, which is a major cause of illness and death in people with severe allergies. Histamine is a very small molecule composed of only seventeen atoms, making it a challenging target to detect. To date, no diagnostic test exists that can measure histamine levels accurately... -
Toehold Probes for Nucleic Acid Detection
The accurate detection of specific DNA or RNA sequences is important for many research and diagnostic applications, and unspecific detection of similar sequences that can differ by only a single nucleotide can give false positive results. In addition, researchers and clinicians would like to accurately test for presence or absence of multiple single base changes... -
Toehold Switches for Synthetic Biology
The burgeoning field of synthetic biology is designing artificial gene circuits that recognize molecules in their environment and respond by regulating genes with desired activities. In the future, such capabilities could allow the engineering of cells as diagnostic or therapeutic devices, factories for the production of clinically or industrially coveted molecules, and as specialized devices... -
RAPID: Testing for Food Contaminants
Contamination of food by microorganisms such as certain bacteria, viruses and fungi is a constant concern, with even miniscule amounts of certain species posing a risk for foods to become unsafe and spoiled during storage. Current safety and quality tests are often not sensitive enough to detect rare species, and because they first require the... -
FcMBL: Broad-Spectrum Pathogen Capture for Infectious Diseases
Microbial infection is the cause of life-threatening cases of sepsis, meningitis and multiple other diseases that are major causes of death world-wide. Equally prevalent are pathogenic contaminants in our environment, food, and manufacturing processes. In each case, the presence of dangerous microbes must be confirmed, and when they are found, they need to be removed,... -
Human Organs-on-Chips
Clinical studies take years to complete and testing a single compound can cost more than $2 billion. Meanwhile, innumerable animal lives are lost, and the process often fails to predict human responses because traditional animal models often do not accurately mimic human pathophysiology. For these reasons, there is a broad need for alternative ways to... -
Cell-Free Biomolecule Manufacturing
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... -
FISSEQ: Fluorescent In Situ Sequencing
Working copies of active genes — called messenger RNAs or mRNAs —translate the genetic information present in DNA into proteins within the cells’ multiple compartments. They are often positioned strategically within cells in ways that contribute critically to how cells and tissues grow, develop and function, and their mislocation can lead to disease development. To... -
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, as soon as an attack... -
Active Mattress for Infant Health
Clinicians and engineers at the Wyss Institute and the University of Massachusetts Medical School have developed a unique and proprietary system that reduces the onset of neonatal apnea in low birth-weight infants in a clinical trial at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The system makes use of the concept of Stochastic Resonance to reset the... -
Multiplexed Molecular Force Spectroscopy
Programmable DNA nanoswitches, invented at the Wyss Institute, can now be used in combination with a benchtop Centrifuge Force Microscope (CFM) as a highly reliable tool to observe thousands of individual molecules and their responses to mechanical forces in parallel. By analyzing the responses of single molecules under conditions where they experience such forces, it is possible... -
Inexpensive Super-Resolution Microscopy
Wyss Institute scientists have developed a highly versatile and inexpensive microscopic imaging platform designed to visualize objects with molecular-scale resolution and unprecedented complexity. The DNA-powered imaging technology can reveal the inner workings of cells at the single molecule level, using conventional microscopes found in most laboratories. Key to the Wyss Institute’s DNA-driven imaging super resolution... -
Paper-Based Diagnostics
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... -
Microfluidic Hemostasis Monitor
The body’s ability to stop bleeding, also known as hemostasis, is critical for survival. For patients with blood clotting disorders, medical conditions requiring the use of anticoagulation or antiplatelet drugs, or who require treatment with extracorporeal devices that circulate their blood outside of the body, it is essential that care providers can rapidly monitor their... -
3D Bioprinting of Living Tissues
Progress in drug testing and regenerative medicine could greatly benefit from laboratory-engineered human tissues built of a variety of cell types with precise 3D architecture. But production of greater than millimeter sized human tissues has been limited by a lack of methods for building tissues with embedded life-sustaining vascular networks. In this video, the Wyss... -
Flexi-Mitts: Neuromoter and Cognitive Ability Tracker
Advances in medical care have improved the survival of very low birth weight premature infants but at the same time have also led to an increased number of surviving infants with reduced cerebral growth and long-term neurodevelopmental motor, cognitive, and social morbidities. These complications are met by a lack of early assessment tools for diagnosing...