Wyss InstituteOrgans on Chips – Wyss Institute

Building protection against infectious diseases with nanostructured vaccines

Mariel Schoen — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 12:56:44 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — The COVID-19 pandemic brought messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to the forefront of global health care. After their clinical trial stages, the first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was administered on 8 December 2020 and mathematical models suggest that mRNA vaccines prevented at least 14.4 million deaths from COVID-19 in the first year alone.

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AVATARs for Astronaut Health Are Heading to Space!

Jessica Leff — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:04:20 +0000

NASA’s AVATAR experiment is flying aboard Artemis II to study how deep space affects human health. Using Organ Chips containing astronaut cells, Emulate and Wyss Institute researchers will examine how radiation and microgravity impact human tissue. This research will help inform medical strategies for future long-duration missions to Mars and beyond. The findings could also contribute to…

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Transforming cancer treatments through bioinspired engineering and translation

Jessica Leff — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:59:03 +0000

Despite major advances in personalized medicine, targeted drugs, and immunotherapies, many cancers remain difficult – or impossible – to treat. Even when therapies work, they can trigger serious secondary health risks that may themselves become life-threatening. Wyss Institute researchers are tackling these challenges head-on by developing new therapies that more powerfully activate the immune…

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Toward engineering a human kidney collecting duct system

Jessica Leff — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:50:56 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — The human kidney filters about a cup of blood every minute, removing waste, excess fluid, and toxins from it, while also regulating blood pressure, balancing important electrolytes, activating Vitamin D, and helping the body produce red blood cells. This broad range of functions is achieved in part via the kidney’s complex organization. In its outer region…

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Organs on Chips: Using Science, Art, and Design to Understand the Human Body – Talking About Blood

Jessica Leff — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 18:41:34 +0000

In this episode, Wyss Founding Director Don Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., talks with Helen Osborne about: How organ-on-chip and “human body on chips” technologies are built and how they realistically mimic human organ function by combining living cells, blood flow, and mechanical forces like breathing and stretch; The implications of these chips for hematology and clinical care…

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Human Organ Chip technology sets stage for pan-influenza A CRISPR RNA therapies

Jessica Leff — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:55:54 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) – The Influenza A virus (IAV) has been the cause of six major flu pandemics, responsible for 50 to 100 million deaths globally. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that, despite seasonally updated vaccines, IAV infections still lead to 140,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 to 52,000 deaths annually. The development of antiviral treatments against IAV…

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Wyss Institute receives Wellcome Leap funding to develop first Human Organ Chip model for heavy menstrual bleeding

Jessica Leff — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 13:55:11 +0000

By Alexandra Jirstrand (BOSTON) – The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has been awarded funding from Wellcome Leap’s $50 million The Missed Vital Sign program, which seeks to transform how menstruation is understood and treated in healthcare. The Wyss will use its pioneering Organ Chip technology to create the first human model of heavy menstrual…

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Blood Clot Dx

admin — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:00:40 +0000

Blood clots can arise anywhere in the body, blocking blood flow and causing pain and other symptoms. The most serious types of clots, called deep vein thrombosis (DVT), typically form in the veins in the legs, and can break off and become lodged in a lung. This can cause a pulmonary embolism (PE), which is when blood flow to the lungs is prevented and can be fatal. The symptoms of PE resemble…

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Precision oncology Organ Chip platform accurately and actionably predicts chemotherapy responses of patients suffering from esophageal adenocarcinoma

Jessica Leff — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 13:20:57 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), one of two major forms of esophageal cancer, is the sixth most deadly cancer worldwide for which no effective targeted therapy exists. Patients need to rely on chemotherapy as a standard-of-care, which is started ahead of surgical interventions as a so-called “neoadjuvant chemotherapy” (NACT) in the hope to shrink or control tumors.

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Reimagining a World Without Terminal Illness

Jessica Leff — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:00:52 +0000

As he battles metastatic skin cancer, Wyss Scientific Instrument maker John Caramanica is more motivated than ever to do his part in fabricating technologies to improve the health of others and our planet. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University…

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