Technology Area: Therapeutics

GC Therapeutics: Changing the Future of Cell Therapies
GC Therapeutics (GCTx) is applying their stem cell-engineering TFome platform to overcome barriers in the development and manufacturing of cell therapies to improve patient access across a broad range of disease areas.
Injectable Hydrogel Adhesive for Improved Muscle Regeneration
A super-strong, stretchy, and self-healing biomaterial that adheres to muscles and helps them heal faster after injury.
Ropirio: Novel Treatments Targeting the Lymphatic System
Ropirio is commercializing the world’s first drug that directly targets and reactivates lymph vessels, a portfolio of other lymph-targeting small molecules, and a preclinical platform for discovering more.
DoriVac: DNA Origami-Based Vaccines for Combination Immunotherapy
Personalized cancer and infectious disease vaccine platform harnessing DNA nanotechnology to control the co-delivery and co-presentation of tumor antigen and adjuvant ligands to immune cells with nanoscale precision. This approach has potential to trigger enhanced immune responses against tumors and infectious pathogens.
Metabolically Labeled CAR-T Cells Against Cancer
Through a simple and effective metabolic labeling approach, patient-derived T cells engineered to carry immune-enhancing cytokines on their surfaces could help expand adoptive T cell therapies to treatment of solid tumors and improve blood cancer therapies.
AminoX: Making Better Protein Drugs, Quicker and Cheaper
AminoX enables protein drugs to only become active in the tumor microenvironment and not elsewhere in the body to avoid immune-related adverse effects in the body. By designing and building non-standard amino acids into strategic positions of protein drugs, AminoX provides tumor-specific, and longer-lasting target inhibition.
Engineered Live Biotherapeutic Product (eLBP) to Protect the Microbiome from Antibiotics
eLBP is a safe and cost-effective therapeutic for patients treated with beta-lactam antibiotics that safeguards against the loss of health-essential microbes while preventing the development and spread of antibiotic resistance.
NodeTX: Growing Lymph Nodes to Treat Cancer
NodeTX is a novel immunotherapy that leverages the human body's innate ability to grow lymph nodes to fight tumors.
Immunostimulatory RNA Therapeutic for Treatment of Cancer and Infectious Disease
Our novel dsRNAs stimulate the immune system to inhibit cancer, bacterial, and viral infections including SARS-CoV-2 and multiple influenza strains.
Cellular “Backpacks” to Fight Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, and More
Macrophages are very malleable immune cells, but that also means that they can be influenced by cancerous tumors and inflammatory processes. Our cellular "backpacks" stick to macrophages and can deliver molecules that keep them in their desired state for cell therapy and more.
DNA Nanoswitches: “Lab-on-a-Molecule” Drug Discovery
The Lab-on-a-Molecule platform leverages the Wyss Institute’s DNA nanotechnology technology for the high-throughput, low-cost screening of a wide range of chemical and biologic compounds to enable the discovery of first-in-class therapeutics for various conditions.
Lactation Biologics: Increasing Milk Production for Healthier Babies
Lactation Biologics is developing a long-lasting, self-injectable treatment to help nursing mothers feed their babies naturally, helping them get the best nutrition possible in the face of climate disasters and supply chain disruptions.
Passive Directional Valve Technology: Towards More User-friendly and Accessible Microfluidic Devices for Diagnostic and Research Applications
Passive directional valves enable smaller and more complex microfluidics applications across of broad spectrum of future technologies, including diagnostics, drug development, and tissue engineering.
eRNA: Enzymatic RNA synthesis for better drugs
EnPlusOne Biosciences is enabling RNA oligonucleotide manufacturing at scale, meeting the increasing demand for RNA drugs with an enzymatic process that is more efficient and creates a smaller environmental footprint.
FeCILL: Targeted Treatment for Severe Fungal Infections
FeCILL is novel delivery vehicle for antifungal drugs that targets them right to the infection site and reduces harmful side effects in patients with severe fungal infections.
Pancreatitis Tx: An Engineered Protein Treatment for Pancreatitis
First disease-modifying therapy that can be systemically applied to safely and effectively treat patients with different forms of pancreatitis.
CogniXense for Rare Disease Drug Discovery
Unravel Biosciences has licensed a Wyss drug discovery platform technology to identify and create drugs to treat complex central nervous system disorders, starting with Rett syndrome.
Sustained Growth Factor Delivery for Regenerating Tissues
The Problem Millions of people worldwide suffer from traumatic injuries or health conditions that cause damage to soft tissues including nerves, muscles, and blood vessels. The body can heal some of that damage, but more serious cases like the severing of a nerve or sustained oxygen deprivation can lead to permanent loss of movement or...
Single-Cell Encapsulation for Improved Cell Therapies
The Problem Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are valued for their ability to secrete compounds that modulate the body’s immune system, making them an attractive solution for existing problems with cell therapies including host-vs-graft disease and organ transplant rejections. However, MSCs are rapidly cleared from the body and can come under fire from the immune system....
Soft Robotic Glove for Neuromuscular Rehabilitation
The soft robotic glove helps restore lost hand function in patients with neurological conditions using inflatable chambers that gently bend and straighten the fingers repeatedly. Wyss startup Imago Rehab launched in 2021 to commercialize this technology for at-home rehabilitation of stroke survivors, and aims to expand its offerings into other areas of rehabilitation.
Kidney Engineering Technology for New Tissue Replacement Therapies
Trestle Biotherapeutics licensed 3D bioprinting, and stem cell and kidney organoid engineering methods to help it create kidney repair and replacement therapies. These could become new standard-of-care options beyond dialysis and kidney transplants for patients with kidney failure.
PhonoGraft^TM: Biomimetic Hearing-restoration Technology
PhonoGraft is an eardrum-regenerating device that enables better and longer-lasting eardrum reconstruction, reducing the need for invasive surgeries and minimizing the risk of long-term hearing loss. Wyss startup Beacon Bio was acquired by Desktop Health, a healthcare business within Desktop Metal, Inc. which is further developing this technology towards commercialization with the former Wyss startup team leading the way.
MRBL: Next-Generation Gene Therapy for Molecular Skin Rejuvenation
The next-generation gene therapy for molecular skin rejuvenation combines a comprehensive target gene prediction with a novel transdermal delivery approach for therapeutic adenovirus-associated viruses. The platform targets monogenic disease indications in the skin, and extends the same targets to the treatment of common skin aging conditions.
Tough Gel Adhesives for Wound Healing
A Band-Aid® adhesive bandage is an effective treatment for stopping external bleeding from skin wounds, but an equally viable option for internal bleeding does not yet exist. Surgical glues are often used inside the body instead of traditional wound closure techniques like stitches, staples, and clips because they reduce the patient’s time in the hospital...
DNA Nanotechnology Tools: From Design to Applications
A suite of diverse, multifunctional DNA nanotechnological tools with unique capabilities and potential for a broad range of clinical and biomedical research areas. Our DNA nanotechnology devices were engineered to overcome specific bottlenecks in the development of new therapies and diagnostics, and to help further our understanding of molecular structures.
Multiplexed Protein Binding and Barcoding Platform for Drug Development
Manifold Bio is commercializing an end-to-end drug discovery and development platform to improve the efficiency of protein therapeutic creation.
OMNIVAX: Broadly Deployable Infection Vaccine Platform
OMNIVAX is an immuno-material-based vaccine platform technology able to create safe and effective therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines against viral and bacterial threats. Its modular approach enables the rapid creation of vaccines for pathogens using known and unknown antigens. Current approaches include vaccines against some viral diseases.
Bone Marrow-Like Scaffolds for Accelerating Immune Reconstitution
An implantable bone marrow cryogel to accelerate the full reconstitution of the immune system, including T cell immunity, in patients that received chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. This could provide an off-the-shelf, material-based solution for patients with severe blood disorders whose immunity is recovering only slowly after treatment.
FcMBL: Broad-Spectrum Pathogen Capture for Infectious Disease Diagnosis and Therapy
The Problem Infectious diseases have plagued humanity for millennia, and the pathogens that infect and sicken humans are constantly evolving. Severe infections can cause sepsis, a life-threatening condition in which a patient’s immune system overreacts to the infection. The body starts to attack itself, which can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death. Sepsis...
Injectable Alginate Hydrogels for Medical Applications
One of the biggest challenges in medicine is getting a drug to the right part of the body at the right time. Even when the target site in the body is known, like a pain-causing injury or a cancerous tumor, most drugs are given as oral pills or intravenous infusions, which limits their effectiveness. In...
Liquid-Infused Tympanostomy Tubes
Novel ear tubes coated with proprietary liquid-infused medical-grade polymers that form a frictionless, biofouling-resistant layer inside the tube, dramatically reducing the adhesion of biofluids, human cells, and common ear infection-causing bacterial strains by about 99% when compared with conventional tympanostomy tubes.
CogniXense: A Platform for Rapid Drug Repurposing
CogniXense is a target-agnostic drug discovery platform that enables the repurposing of drugs for rare genetic diseases in record time. By combining human data-based computational drug prediction with on-demand animal model development, we can mimic the diversity of symptoms of patient populations and begin drug screening on new diseases within a month.
Synthetic Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Capsids for Advanced Gene Therapy
Dyno Therapeutics is aiming to become a leading gene therapy delivery partner for companies in this space, and to enable a new generation of more effective, safer gene therapies by harnessing optimized AAV capsids.
Biomaterial Scaffolds for T Cell Expansion
Immunotherapy, or tweaking the body’s own immune system to treat disease, is attracting significant attention in the medical field for its potential to offer long-lasting cures with fewer side effects than chemotherapy or other drugs. One type of immunotherapy involves isolating T cells (a type of white blood cell) from a patient’s body, sometimes modifying...
Soft Exosuits for Back Support During Strenuous Tasks
Over half a million workers in the manufacturing and construction industries are injured on the job each year, resulting in an estimated direct cost of $13.8 billion. Occupational back pain is the leading cause of injury and accounts for one-third of all musculoskeletal injuries, resulting in a median of eight days of missed work. Discussions...
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...
Light-Reflecting Balloon Catheter for Heart Repair
Certain Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) called Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) and Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) occur when openings in the septum that divides the upper and lower heart chambers causes oxygen-rich blood from the upper chamber to mix with oxygen–poor blood from lower chamber. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ASD alone...
Engineered Pig Organs for Human Transplant
eGenesis is working toward ending the global transplant shortage and transforming the treatment of organ failure by using CRISPR to edit the pig genome to make their organs safe for transplant in human patients.
Soft Robotic Shoulder Support for Stroke Rehabilitation
The majority of stroke survivors have difficulty using their affected arm in everyday life. Commercial rehabilitation robots exist, but most are expensive, rigid, non-portable exoskeletons that can only be used in clinical rehabilitation settings. Portable devices could considerably increase the frequency and amount of robotic therapy, maximizing the recovery possible for patients with arm impairments....
Implantable Cancer Vaccine
The implantable cancer vaccine is an aspirin-sized disc that is implanted under the skin and serves as an artificial lymph node, recruiting and training a patient's own immune cells to find and kill their cancer cells. It was validated in a Phase I clinical trial at the Wyss Institute, and is currently being developed by Novartis to treat melanoma.
Microfluidic Drug Encapsulation
Because of their large molecular sizes and properties, biologic drugs, be it in the form of monoclonal antibodies that target disease-associated molecules or active proteins and enzymes that may correct deficiencies in the human body, have proven difficult to deploy in many cases. Their therapeutic effects on target cells and tissues often require high and...
Focused Rotary Jet Spinning for Heart Implants
Focused rotary jet spinning (FRJS) is a manufacturing technique that can rapidly spin polymers into long fibers that are easily shaped into heart valves for treating a variety of cardiac diseases in children and adults.
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...
Targeted EPO: Safely Normalizing Oxygen Delivery in a Broad Range of Disease Conditions
General Biologics commercializes Targeted EPO as a first-in-class fusion protein therapeutic for the treatment of life-threatening and limiting hypoxia in various disease conditions, including COPD, cystic fibrosis, COVID-19, and severe anemias, such as in patients with kidney failure.
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
Wyss pediatric biotech startup Prapela is commercializing a gently vibrating mattress pad that helps soothe infants and normalize their breathing. This medical device can be used to address a variety of health conditions, including infant apnea and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.
Injectable Hydrogels for Better Drug Delivery
Wyss researchers have developed a new approach to delivering drugs and therapeutic cells using biocompatible and biodegradable hydrogels made of alginate, a naturally occurring polysaccharide from brown algae. Injectable hydrogels could greatly improve clinical ability to provide extended drug release and controlled delivery throughout the body or at targeted local sites. The method holds promising...
Soft Exosuits for Lower Extremity Mobility
Our lower-extremity soft exosuit is made of light, flexible fabrics that move with the wearer like clothing, and apply precisely timed assistive forces to a patient's ankles to improve their walking and mobility. This technology was licensed by ReWalk Robotics, which has commercialized it as the ReStore™ for stroke rehabilitation.
Human Organs-on-Chips
Organ Chips are microfluidic devices lined with living human cells for drug development, disease modeling, and personalized medicine. Launched in 2014, Wyss startup Emulate, Inc., is leveraging the Wyss Institute’s Organ Chip technology to mimic human organs in vitro, enabling faster, better, and cheaper drug development and insights into human health.
MAGE: Multiplex Automated Genomic Engineering
Developed at the Wyss Institute, the multiplex automated genome engineering (MAGE) technology 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...
Treating Breast Cancer that Metastasizes to the Brain
Treating breast cancer that has metastasized to the brain is an extreme challenge because most drugs are not able to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). About one in three patients with HER2+ or triple negative breast cancer will develop brain metastases, which leads to high morbidity and mortalities. There is currently no effective, systemic treatment...
StopEndoPain: Therapeutics for Endometriosis Associated Pain
Endometriosis is a common disease affecting 10% of women globally, making it one of the largest unaddressed indications in the world. It is associated with infertility and significant, frequently debilitating pain. Understanding its pain mechanisms is critical for targeted endometriosis treatments. We are developing in vitro models of ectopic endometrial lesions and studying connections to...
ENDOx: Early Diagnosis, Imaging, and Treatment of Endometriosis
Endometriosis, characterized by the abnormal growth of tissue resembling the endometrium outside the uterus, is estimated to affect 10–15% of women globally and is a leading cause of chronic pelvic pain. It often begins in adolescence, but limited understanding of its early development continues to delay diagnosis and the ability to treat it effectively. Current...
BioControl: Safe and Reversible Birth Control
The long-term impact of birth control remains largely unknown, and as our knowledge of traditional methods evolves, so must our innovations to uncover safe, effective, and non-hormonal options. By way of novel compounds that slow sperm function, this technology is offering a new form of male and vaginal contraceptive. Our early tests show promising results,...
FERTIVA: Enhanced Ovarian Tissue Engraftment for Fertility
Nearly 80% of women who survive cancer go on to struggle with fertility. Our team is developing an innovative approach using ovarian tissue cryopreservation: freezing and storing ovarian tissue to preserve fertility potential. By combining patient-derived cells and innovative techniques, we are accelerating tissue engraftment, boosting pregnancy rates, and preserving vital ovarian function. Our multidisciplinary...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a debilitating illness that disproportionately affects women, causing severe fatigue, cognitive difficulties, sleeping problems, dizziness, and pain. Currently, no treatment exists for ME/CFS. Our team is creating accurate disease models to study brain activity, with the aim of understanding if ME/CFS is caused by continuous activation of interconnected brain...
Stroma Tx: Safe Pregnancy for IBD Patients
Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) are advised to achieve remission before pregnancy, in an effort to decrease pregnancy-related intestinal issues, including fibrosis. Yet the exact mechanisms underlying the fluctuation of their symptoms remain unclear and there are no treatments currently available. To close this knowledge gap, we are treating our IBD Organ Chips with...
IBD ID: Finding Novel Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) disproportionately affects women, who also experience IBD symptoms differently than men. Through research with human Organ Chips, we identified the role of connective tissue in aggravating inflammation in the nearby intestinal cells of IBD patients. We will use this chip technology to enable rapid screening of stromal cells, crucial for understanding...
Long-Term Hormone Delivery
This project is encapsulating a type of estrogen in special hydrogels that release the hormone steadily over a longer period of time. This method aims to provide consistent relief from autoimmune symptoms with fewer side effects, making it easier for countless women to manage their conditions effectively.
Lymphatics Medicines for Female Health
Lymphedema is a painful condition affecting millions of women worldwide, often caused by surgical treatment of breast and gynecologic cancers, or a biological predisposition. While no medicines are currently available to address lymphatic disease, we are combining a bioengineered human lymphatic-on-chip platform, lymphatic cell biology, and drug development expertise in an interdisciplinary effort to transform...
iNodes: Implantable Lymphoid Organs for Ovarian Cancer Therapy
Over 12,000 women die of ovarian cancer every year, yet ovarian cancer receives less than 1% of research funding compared to other solid tumors. Early symptoms can often mimic less serious conditions, and delayed diagnoses mean that 80% of ovarian cancer cases are metastatic at the time of detection. For these patients, the 5-year survival...
Metal-Organic Framework Coated Fe3O4 Nanoparticles for Magnetic Hyperthermia and Imaging in Endometriosis
Endometriosis is a debilitating condition affecting more than 11% of women during their reproductive years, where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of it, causing pain and fertility issues. While current treatments predominantly focus on alleviating the pain associated with endometriosis, a comprehensive cure remains elusive. A recent study found that...
Physiological Mucus-producing Organ-on-a-Chip Model of Human Cervix for Analysis of Host-microbiome Contributions to Vaginal Health
Interactions between a woman’s microbiome and the microenvironment of the reproductive tract are crucial for vaginal health. Disruptions of the microbial balance can lead to conditions like HIV, bacterial vaginosis, miscarriage and preterm birth. Yet current research methods, such as microbial cultures and metagenomic analysis, often fail to replicate the cervicovaginal environment accurately. Our Cervix...

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