Technology Area: Gene Circuits

Technologies 5

• 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...
• Toehold switches as versatile tools for synthetic biology applications
  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...
• 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...
• Multiplex Automated Genomic Engineering (MAGE)
  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...
• 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 105

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• Press Release Take Two E. coli and Call Me in the Morning
  June 28, 2019
• Community Nina Donghia on Freeze-Dried Protein Expression
  June 27, 2019
• Video/​Animation Saving the Planet with Robots, Microbes, and Nanotechnology
  June 5, 2019

Multimedia 22

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  Video/Animation
  SABER-FISH: Enabling the sensitive and multiplexed detection of nucleic acids within thick tissues
  This animation shows how SABER-FISH uses a suite of DNA nanotechnological methods that together enable the sensitive and multiplexed detection of DNA and RNA targets within cells and thick tissues. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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  Audio/Podcast
  From the Old Chemistry Set to the New ‘BioBits,’ Cutting-Edge Kit to Teach Biology
  From the Old Chemistry Set to the New ‘BioBits,’ Cutting-Edge Kit to Teach Biology was originally broadcast on WBUR on November 23, 2018. This story features Wyss Core Faculty member James Collins. The original broadcast story can be found here.

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  Video/Animation
  Light-driven fine chemical production in yeast biohybrids
  Wyss Institute Core Faculty member Neel Joshi explains the concept of yeast biohybrids and how they can be used to harvest energy from light to drive the production of fine chemicals. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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  Video/Animation
  BioBits
  Researchers at the Wyss Institute, MIT, and Northwestern University have collaborated to create “BioBits,” a low-cost, shelf-stable educational kit to teach synthetic and molecular biology in K-12 classrooms. The kit utilizes freeze-dried cell-free reactions that eliminate the need for growing living cells in order to perform biological experiments. Different modules in the kit teach students...

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  Video/Animation
  Primer Exchange Reaction
  In this video, Jocelyn Kishi illustrates how Primer Exchange Reaction (PER) cascades work to autonomously create programmable long single-stranded DNA molecules. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

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  Video/Animation
  CRISPR-Cas: Molecular Recording
  In this video, Wyss Institute and Harvard Medical School researchers George Church and Seth Shipman explain how they engineered a new CRISPR system-based technology that enables the chronological recording of digital information, like that representing still and moving images, in living bacteria. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University