Meet some of the extraordinary women at the Wyss Institute who are changing the world
From Marie Curie to Rosalind Franklin to Rachel Carson, women have made discoveries that fundamentally changed how we understand and interact with our bodies, each other, and the world around us.
The Wyss Institute is celebrating its brilliant women during Women’s History Month, and we invite you to click through the gallery below to meet some of them and learn how their work will change the world.
1/24 "I am making history by developing drugs that can slow down all biochemical activities. These drugs could be used to prevent organ injury during trauma and acute infection, and have the potential to greatly increase patient survival." –Gladness Tillya, Research Assistant 
2/24 "We are making history by advancing new, high risk technologies to the market. We develop commercial strategies, build collaborations, and help our Wyss entrepreneurs to spin out their dream companies." –Angelika Fretzen, COO & Technology Translation Director and Ally Chang, Business Development Director 
3/24 “I am making history by developing biomarker-based tests to accurately diagnose tuberculosis, which could lead to a rapid, low-cost triage test for use in resource-limited settings to allow for timely treatment initiation, and eventually help with TB control and prevention.” –Liangxia Xie, Postdoctoral Fellow 
4/24 "I am making history by bringing philosophy and ethics to the workfloor of the lab and, through direct collaboration with the researchers, bridging bioinspired engineering and the humanities." –Jeantine Lunshof, Ethicist, Philosopher; also pictured: Anush Chiappino-Pepe, Postdoctoral Fellow 
5/24 "I am making history by studying aging failure mechanisms of human skin, which could lead to better understanding of human aging as a whole, and ultimately to the development of novel therapeutics for aging reversal." –Denitsa Milanova, Technology Development Fellow 
6/24 "I am making history by developing therapeutics that temporarily slow biomolecular activities, inducing a state of suspended animation, which could reduce organ injury and increase patient survival following trauma and infection." –Megan Sperry, Postdoctoral Fellow 
7/24 "I am making history by using new textiles and apparel design techniques to create garments that assist people, support their rehabilitation, and improve their quality of life." –Diana Wagner, Senior Functional Apparel Designer 
8/24 "I am making history by engineering bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into biodegradable plastics." –Marika Ziesack, Scientist 
9/24 "I am making history by programming the genetic information of cells so that they regenerate injured tissues and help them recover their normal function." –Irene de Lazaro, Postdoctoral Fellow 
10/24 "I am making history by shedding light on how gut bacteria in premature babies affect their vulnerability to disease." –Cicely Fadel, Clinical Fellow 
11/24 "I'm making history by developing fluorescence in situ sequencing, which analyzes RNA transcripts inside cells to learn how they function, and could lead to an individualized approach to understanding patients' genetic profile." –Jenny Tam, Principal Scientist 
12/24 "I am making history by developing a Cervix-on-a-Chip model that recapitulates the complex microenvironment of the human cervix to improve our understanding of cervicovaginal infectious diseases and develop new therapeutics for women’s health." –Zohreh Izadifar, Postdoctoral Fellow 
13/24 "I am making history by engineering novel eardrum implants for patients with chronic ear infections that will help reduce the rate of post-surgical complications, and allow for a more effective delivery of medication to treat ear and hearing disorders." –Ida Pavlichenko, Technology Development Fellow 
14/24 "I am making history by re-programming cells to act as living sensors, therapeutics, and bio-factories for a safe and sustainable future world." –Pam Silver, Core Faculty 
15/24 "I am making history by developing novel assay techniques to assist in the development of infectious disease vaccines via a biomaterial-based scaffold to address serious unmet medical needs." -Chyenne Yeager, Research Assistant (Left) | "I am making history by helping to develop an infectious disease vaccine based on biomaterial scaffolds that can modulate the immune system to provide protection against diseases that kill millions of people worldwide every year." –Nada Langellotto, ATT Staff Scientist (Right) 
16/24 "I am making history by facilitating commercialization of inventions that will be the next generation of research tools, diagnostics, and therapeutics." –Jess McDonough, Business Development Lead 
17/24 "I am making history by developing freeze-dried cell-free molecular diagnostics and therapeutics, which could be used in the field to rapidly detect pathogens, or selectively manufacture vaccines on-demand without need for cold storage." –Nina Donghia, Scientist 
18/24 "I am making history by bioengineering transplantable tissues and organs that could serve as functional, therapeutic organ replacements, to overcome the organ donor shortage." –Luba Perry, Senior Scientist 
19/24 "I am making history by creating the next generation of smart medical tools to enhance surgical robots and help doctors monitor metrics in real-time, empowering surgeons with data and enabling future robot-assisted medical operations." –Rut Peña, Staff Robotics Engineer 
20/24 "I am making history by developing prophylactic and curative solutions to food poisoning using engineered probiotics." –Suhyun Kim, Graduate Student 
21/24 "I am making history by using DNA strands as building blocks to create self-assembled structures of different sizes, shapes, and functions, which could be used in many exciting areas ranging from disease therapeutics to data storage." –Youngeun Kim, Postdoctoral Fellow 
22/24 "I am making history by engineering responsive textiles for smart garments and wearable robotics to create clothing that continuously adapts to the human body both for comfort and to actively assist people with limited mobility." –Vanessa Sanchez, Graduate Student 
23/24 "I am making history by analyzing antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates to identify compounds that can successfully cross the blood-brain-barrier, which could be used to shuttle drugs into the brain to treat patients with central nervous system disorders or cancers." –Caitlin Horgan, Research Assistant 
24/24 "My team is untangling the secrets of chromosome organization so we can learn how our genome functions, how it protects its integrity, and, ultimately, how all of this contributes to human health." –Ting Wu, Associate Faculty Member