Reimagine the World

Reimagine the World: Keep Going

After our first year of Reimagining the World, patients, clinicians, and family members of patients share how researchers are giving them hope for a better future, and inspire us to keep going.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Treatment for Neurological Diseases

When Ayush Noori was in elementary school, his larger-than-life grandmother was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurodegenerative disorder that eventually causes patients to lose their ability to move their eyes, muscles, and body.

Unsatisfied with the complete lack of treatment options, Ayush began training in a lab researching neurodegenerative disorders at the age of only twelve.

Given his experiences caring for his grandmother and getting involved in scientific research, Ayush would Reimagine the World with treatments for challenging medical conditions, where every person has the chance to live a complete, fulfilling life surrounded by their loved ones. Read and listen to Ayush’s story.

Collaboration Between Venture Capital and Academia

The Wyss Institute’s alliance with Northpond Labs supports early-stage, transformative research with strong translation potential. Hear Northpond Ventures co-founders Michael Rubin and Sharon Kedar explain why they decided to partner with the Wyss, as well as the leaders of various Wyss projects and startups about how support from Northpond has helped accelerate their technologies to the market.

Breast Reconstruction

Denise Skok, a two-time breast cancer survivor, Luba Perry, a scientist at the Wyss Institute, and Samuel Lin, a plastic surgeon collaborating with the Wyss Institute, are all working to reimagine a world where breast cancer patients have better reconstruction options. The ReConstruct project at the Wyss Institute uses adipose tissue assembled from a patient’s own cells and integrated into their body offer more natural breast reconstruction and augmentation with fewer health risks, offering hope to future breast cancer patients.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Healthcare for Women

Dr. Kathryn Rexrode, Division Chief of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, discusses gender and biological sex-based discrimination in medicine, the profound effect that gender and biological sex has on healthcare, the short falls in women’s health research, and why she is hopeful that healthcare will improve for women.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Infectious Diseases

William Lautzenheiser narrowly survived a rare and devastating infection that claimed all four of his limbs. In a brilliant display of resilience and to cope with his new normal, he turned to comedy, as a way of telling his story in a relatable way.

Check out some of William’s comedy footage, courtesy of STUMPED: stumpedthemovie.com

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Breast Cancer

Denise Skok, a three-times cancer survivor, twice breast cancer and once skin cancer, shares the medical and emotional challenges she had to overcome to be cancer-free.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Parkinson’s Disease

Lisa and Patrick Peterson were soulmates whose loving and happy marriage was cut tragically short by Parkinson’s Disease. In this video, Lisa recounts their harrowing story from Patrick’s diagnosis to her experience as caregiver.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Personalized Medicine

After losing three grandparents to cancer and studying inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Wyss Postdoctoral Fellow Alican Ozkan has a pretty good idea of how he’d reimagine the world: with better therapeutic options for all patients, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, or sex.

He’s making that vision a reality by working with his colleagues to use Organ Chips to further understand how female patients are affected differently by IBD in relation to hormone fluctuations.

Read and listen to Alican’s story.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Brain Disease Treatment and Prevention

Ana Raquel P. Santa Maria, Ph.D. has been inspired to Reimagine the World with better understanding, treatment, and prevention of brain diseases after seeing her grandparents suffer as they age, especially her grandma who has dementia. She’s making her vision a reality at the Wyss as a member of the Brain Targeting Program, where she’s working to discover proteins expressed in the blood-brain barrier that could more effectively transport therapeutics to the brain. Read and listen to Ana tell her story.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Diagnostics for Underserved Populations

Two clinicians collaborating with the Wyss Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA), Lise Johnson and Craig Hersh, as well as two members of the Wyss DxA Industrial Participant Program, Nell Meosky Luo and Andy Levin, share how they would Reimagine the World and the personal stories that fuel their passion for the work they are doing.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Infertility

Christian Kramme imagines a world where all people can have a child on their own time frame. Such “reproductive autonomy” is not the case today – infertility is a growing problem worldwide, and existing treatments like IVF are incredibly taxing on women’s bodies and too expensive for most of the global population to access. Listen to Christian speak about how he is working to turn his dream into reality through groundbreaking ovarian organoid technology developed at the Wyss Institute.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Treatment of Deadly Fungal Infections

Opportunistic fungal infections usually only affect patients whose immune systems are compromised, but when they do, they are often deadly – the mortality rate for these infections can be as high as 25%. Existing antifungal treatments have high levels of toxicity, and can harm the patient more than they help. Alex Tatara and his team at the Wyss Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital are reimagining how we treat deadly fungal infections by developing a new delivery method for systemic antifungals that could help reduce negative side effects and better target the infection.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Patient Diagnostics

The Wyss Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA) is reimagining health equity by fostering deep collaborations between clinicians, academia, and industry to accelerate the development and deployment of new diagnostic technologies, particularly for low-resource settings, driven by unmet needs.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Infectious Disease Therapeutics and Diagnostics

Mike Super is a Lead Staff Scientist using protein engineering to design therapeutic and diagnostic devices to treat cancer, and infectious and immunological diseases. He also leads the Biostasis team at the Wyss. In this video, he shares his personal and professional journey that began in the deserts of Namibia shadowing his father, one of the few pediatricians in the area. We learn how his father inspired him to Reimagine the World by leveraging protein engineering to improve therapeutics and diagnostics.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Equality and Access in Science and Healthcare

Though she’d only heard about her grandfather from her grandmother, a woman with her own unattainable dreams of entering science, when Staff Scientist Nina Donghia discovered his drawings in his old medical school textbooks, she knew they shared a common bond across time – a dorky fascination with cellular processes.

Read and listen to Nina’s story about how these two figures in her family inspire her to reimagine the world with careers in science and access to healthcare for all.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Post-Traumatic Pain Management

Megan Sperry is a Postdoctoral Fellow working on the Biostasis project to help develop therapeutics that could slow down biological time. In this video, she shares a personal story about an injury she suffered after years of figure skating and how she would Reimagine the World with better recovery outcomes and pain management after trauma.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Diagnostics for Severe Allergies

Pawan Jolly is a Senior Staff Scientist leading the Sensors team to help develop better diagnostics for various illnesses and allergies. He also serves as the technology lead for the Wyss Diagnostics Accelerator. In this video, he shares a heartfelt personal story about his mom who suffers from severe allergies and how he would Reimagine the World with better diagnostics for her.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Neurodegenerative Disease Treatment

Mariana Garcia-Corral is Research Assistant studying brain organoids to help with the treatment of bipolar disorder. In this video, she shares a poignant personal story about her grandfather suffering from Lewy body dementia and how she would Reimagine the World with better neurodegenerative disease treatment.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Eco-Friendly Air Conditioning

We are reimagining air-conditioners to meet increasing global cooling demand while combatting climate change. Our evaporative cooling technology uses advanced materials science and design to make affordable, environmentally-positive eco-friendly air conditioners that work in most climates without the use of synthetic refrigerants.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

Safer Wearable Robotics

We are reimagining robots to be smaller, softer, and safer. Learn how Wyss Associate Faculty members, Conor Walsh and Rob Wood, discuss their visions for the future of bio-inspired soft robotics.

How would you reimagine the world? Share your story.

How would you Reimagine the World?

Every day Wyss members work to reimagine a world where anything is possible.

It’s a world of scientific discovery, imagination, and reality, where diseases are cured, global warming is reversed, pandemics are prevented, and lives are ultimately changed for the better. The possibilities that we are working to realize through our science and engineering are as boundless as our imaginations.

So, what if you could reimagine the world? What would your wish be? What would you change and why? What scientific advancements would you want to see realized in your lifetime or that of your children?

Tell us and we’ll tell you how we’re working to make your reimagined world possible.

Our Call to Reimagine the World

In Fall 2022, we began asking our Wyss community – our faculty, staff, collaborators, partners, and external supporters – “If you could reimagine the world, what would it look like?”