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The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering (pronounced /viːs/ "veese") is a cross-disciplinary research institute at Harvard University that focuses on developing bioinspired materials and devices for applications in healthcare and sustainability.

Initiated with a gift from Hansjörg Wyss, the Wyss Institute is located in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area and has 375 full-time staff.[1] The Wyss is organized around eight focus areas, each of which integrate faculty, postdocs, fellows, and staff scientists. The focus areas are bioinspired therapeutics & diagnostics, diagnostics accelerator, immuno-materials, living cellular devices, molecular robotics, 3D organ engineering, predictive bioanalytics and synthetic biology.[2]

Translating technological discoveries into commercial products and therapies is an important part of the organization's mission.[2]

History

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In 2005, Harvard University established a faculty working group to envision the future of bioengineering.[3] The group was called the Harvard Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering (HIBIE), with the committee focused on synthetic biology, living materials, and biological control.[4] HIBIE was co-chaired by Harvard professors Donald E. Ingber and David J. Mooney. The Wyss Institute was officially launched in January 2009 with a $125 million gift to Harvard—at the time, the largest single philanthropic gift in its history—from Hansjörg Wyss.[5] Ingber became the founding director of the Wyss Institute and David Mooney became a founding Core Faculty member, along with Professors Joanna Aizenberg, David A. Edwards, Kit Parker, George M. Whitesides, George Church, Ary Goldberger, William Shih, Robert Wood, James J. Collins, L. Mahadevan, Radhika Nagpal, and Pamela Silver.[6]

In 2013, Hansjörg Wyss gave another $125 million to Harvard University, doubling his initial gift. The funding was used to further the Institute’s interdisciplinary research, which includes DNA engineering, cleaning toxins from blood, vibrating insoles to help older adults maintain balance, and a melanoma cancer vaccine.[7] In 2019, Hansjörg Wyss donated a third gift of $131 million to the Wyss Institute.[1] In 2020, the Wyss Institute and Northpond Ventures, a Maryland-based venture capital firm, created the Laboratory for Bioengineering Research and Innovation at the Wyss Institute. The $12 million funding supports research related to RNA therapies, genome engineering, and new drug delivery methods.[8]

Within its first ten years, the Institute also spun out 29 startups.[1]

Scientific developments

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The Wyss Institute has been responsible for a number of scientific developments and spinoffs.

  • In 2013, Conor Walsh developed a soft exosuit that uses textiles and cables to replicate leg muscles, which can help a healthy wearer not fatigue as quickly and help people with physical disabilities restore their muscles and increase mobility.[15][16] In 2016, ReWalk robotics licensed the exosuit technology for the treatment of stroke, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and mobility limitations.[17] In 2019, ReWalk received clearance from the FDA to sell their ReStore soft exosuit for rehabilitation of stroke survivors.[18]
  • In 2014, Jennifer A. Lewis developed inks and a process to 3D bioprint organs that could be suitable for human transplants.[22] In 2022, Trestle Biotherapeutics licensed technology to develop 3D bioprinted kidney tissue from Harvard University.[23][24]
  • In 2014, James J. Collins and MIT developed an inexpensive diagnostic that consists of cellular "machinery" (proteins, nucleic acids and ribosomes) freeze-dried on paper.[25] The team tested their diagnostic with Ebola virus and in 2016 they tested it with the Zika virus.[26] In 2021, the technology was licensed to Sherlock Biosciences.[27]
  • In 2015, Donald Ingber engineered a blood protein that binds to more than 90 sepsis-causing pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites.[28] The technology was licensed by BOA Biomedical and approved in 2021 by the FDA to conduct human clinical trials.[29]
  • In 2015, Conor Walsh developed is a soft robotic grip glove to restore mobility for people with impaired hand function.[30][31] In 2021, Imago Rehab spun out to develop the soft robotic glove for stroke rehabilitation.[32]
  • In 2017 David J. Mooney, inspired by the sticky properties of Arion subfuscus slug secretions, developed a non-toxic hydrogel adhesive that sticks to wet surfaces and stretches, making it ideal for use within the body.[33]
  • In 2019, George Church published research on combination gene therapy to treat multiple age-related diseases in mice, including diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease. The team founded Rejuvenate Bio to further develop the technology to treat age-related diseases in dogs.[34]
  • In 2019, George Church's lab developed a machine-learning approach to make more efficient adeno-associated viruses (AAVs), which are delivery vehicles for gene therapies. This team spun out Dyno Therapeutics to continue developing enhanced AAVs.[34] Dyno Therapeutics has partnerships with pharmaceutical companies Novartis, Sarepta Therapeutics, and Roche. In 2021, Dyno Therapeutics raised a $100 million Series A.[35]
  • In 2020, Michael Levin and Josh Bongard developed new synthetic lifeform called Xenobots made from skin cells and heart muscle cells from the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). The scientists use an AI program to design the Xenobots to carry out desired functions, learning how cells cooperate to build complex bodies during morphogenesis and about regenerative medicine more broadly.[36][37][38][39][40]
  • In 2021, Jennifer A. Lewis and Massachusetts Eye and Ear hospital developed PhonoGraft, a 3D-printed regenerative eardrum graft. The team launched a startup company that was acquired by Desktop Health, a subsidiary of Desktop Metal.[41][42]
  • In 2021, Pamela Silver engineered bacteria to feed off of greenhouse gasses to then produce fats similar to animal and vegetable fats, as well as polymers similar to those made from petrochemicals.[43][44]

Response to COVID

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wyss Institute was engaged in several notable efforts.

  • A diagnostic face mask that can detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wearer’s breath was developed by James J. Collins's group. Results take about 90 minutes, are as effective as FDA-approved COVID-19 PCR tests, and costs about $5 in materials to make.[45][46]
  • Donald Ingber's team applied eRapid to detect the nucleic acids of the genome of SARS-CoV-2.[47] In 2022, Antisoma Therapeutics licensed the eRapid technology for respiratory viral illnesses, cancer, and immune/allergic disease. Antisoma plans to use eRapid to develop a point-of-care diagnostic test for COVID-19.[48]
  • Previously undocumented nucleic acid contamination were identified during routine experiments, which inadvertently caused scientists to test positive for COVID-19 even though they were not infected with the coronavirus. [49] This led to the development of new safety protocols to protect researchers and ensure data integrity.[50]
  • The Wyss Institute developed a new nasal swab that could be manufactured quickly and more easily. The Wyss-designed swabs were used in human trials in hospitals in Arizona and New York.[51] The Wyss team lead, Richard Novak, collaborated with Mike Springer at Harvard Medical School, to use the swabs in an automated testing system. In 2021, the startup Rhinostics launched from the Wyss to use the nasal swabs in an automated multiplexed processing system to test samples for COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.[52][53]
  • The team at the Wyss used computational approaches and organ-chips to identify FDA-approved drugs that could be repurposed to prevent or treat Covid-19.[54] Amodiaquine, an antimalarial drug, reduced COVID-19 infection by 60% in the Organ Chip model and is now being tested in human COVID-19 patients in Africa.[55] Cantex Pharmaseutical’s Azeliragon was identified as a promising treatment for COVID-19. [56]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Kuznitz, Alison (June 7, 2019). "Harvard alumnus donates $131m to research institute". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  2. ^ a b "Wyss Institute | Wyss Institute at Harvard". Wyss Institute. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  3. ^ Mone, Gregory (April 2013). "Better Nature". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  4. ^ "Engineering Bioengineering". Harvard Magazine. January 2009. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  5. ^ "HIBIE: Harvard Institute For Biologically Inspired Engineering". web.archive.org. 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  6. ^ Tolikas, Mary; Antoniou, Ayis; Ingber, Donald E. (August 11, 2017). "The Wyss institute: A new model for medical technology innovation and translation across the academic-industrial interface". Bioengineering & Translational Medicine. 2 (3): 247–257. doi:10.1002/btm2.10076. ISSN 2380-6761. PMC 5689495. PMID 29313034.
  7. ^ Johnson, Carolyn Y. (May 21, 2013). "Entrepreneur gives $125m to Harvard". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  8. ^ DeAngelis, Allison (November 20, 2020). "The Petri Dish: Wyss Institute's VC partnership and a health tech firm eyes M&A". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  9. ^ Wenner Moyer, Melinda (March 1, 2011). "Organs-on-a-Chip for Faster Drug Development". Scientific American.
  10. ^ Gebelhoff, Robert (June 18, 2015). "Researchers across the country are putting organs on chips". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  11. ^ Harris, Richard (January 2, 2015). "Researchers Create Artificial Organs That Fit In Your Hand". NPR. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  12. ^ Bluestein, Adam (2022-03-08). "The 10 most innovative biotech companies in 2022". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  13. ^ Walrath, Rowan (September 7, 2021). "Organ-on-a-chip maker Emulate eyes expansion with $82M round". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  14. ^ Saltzman, Jonathan (February 20, 2018). "2 pharma giants, Calif. hospital to use Boston firm's 'organ-on-a-chip'". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  15. ^ "Harvard Biodesign Lab". biodesign.seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  16. ^ Subbaraman, Nidhi (June 25, 2013). "Real-life super-powered 'exosuit': Better, faster, stronger ... softer". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  17. ^ Wasserman, Emily (May 17, 2016). "ReWalk, Wyss Institute team up for lower-limb exoskeleton development". Fierce Biotech. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  18. ^ "FDA Issues Clearance for the ReStore™ Exo-Suit, the First Soft Robotic System for Stroke Therapy". PR Newswire. June 4, 2019. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  19. ^ "Cross-disciplinary team from Harvard University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute brings novel therapeutic cancer vaccine to human clinical trials". Wyss Institute. September 6, 2013. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  20. ^ Bradt, Steve (November 25, 2009). "First cancer vaccine to eliminate tumors in mice". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  21. ^ Scanlon, Jessie (August 2, 2018). "Boston's biotech boom could bring bold new treatments for cancer - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  22. ^ Groopman, Jerome (November 17, 2014). "Print Thyself". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  23. ^ "Kidney replacement therapies facilitated by new Wyss engineering tech". Longevity.Technology. February 22, 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  24. ^ Gellerman, Bruce (November 22, 2017). "How 3D Bioprinting Could Revolutionize Organ Replacement". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  25. ^ Jr, Donald G. McNeil (2016-05-06). "Rapid Zika Test Is Introduced by Researchers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
  26. ^ Smith, Amelia (October 28, 2014). "New Pocket-Sized Blotter Test Can Detect Ebola Strains in Just 30 Minutes". Newsweek. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  27. ^ "Sherlock Biosciences Launches to Provide Better, Faster and More Affordable Diagnostic Testing Worldwide Through Engineering Biology". www.businesswire.com. March 21, 2019. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  28. ^ Orcutt, Mike (September 18, 2015). "A Portable Blood Cleanser for Treating Sepsis". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  29. ^ Sridharan, Rukmani (May 19, 2021). "GARNET Pathogen Filter to Treat Sepsis: Exclusive with Nisha Varma, COO of BOA Biomedical | Medgadget". www.medgadget.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  30. ^ Quinn, Cristina (October 8, 2015). "WATCH: The Robotic Glove Of The Future". GBH News. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  31. ^ Gates, Bill (January 8, 2019). "Bots, britches, and bees". Gates Notes: The Blog of Bill Gates. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  32. ^ Edwards, David (March 3, 2022). "Baker-Polito Administration awards Harvard and Boston universities $3 million for assistive robotics research". Robotics & Automation News. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  33. ^ Bichell, Rae Ellen (July 27, 2017). "Slug Slime Inspires Scientists To Invent Sticky Surgical Glue". NPR. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  34. ^ a b LeMieux, Julianna; PhD (December 3, 2019). "AAV Optimization on the Fast-Track Hopes to Advance Gene Therapies". GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  35. ^ Walrath, Rowan (May 6, 2021). "George Church-founded gene therapy startup gets $100M cash infusion". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  36. ^ Kriegman, Sam; Blackiston, Douglas; Levin, Michael; Bongard, Josh (2020-01-28). "A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 117 (4): 1853–1859. doi:10.1073/pnas.1910837117. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 6994979. PMID 31932426.
  37. ^ Simon, Matt (January 13, 2020). "Meet Xenobot, an Eerie New Kind of Programmable Organism". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  38. ^ Sokol, Joshua (2020-04-03). "Meet the Xenobots, Virtual Creatures Brought to Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  39. ^ CNN, Jessie Yeung. "Scientists have built the world's first living, self-healing robots". CNN. Retrieved 2022-03-18. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  40. ^ Lin, Connie (2021-11-30). "The world's first 'living robots' can self-replicate, furthering hope for regenerative medicine". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  41. ^ Lin, Kevin (July 16, 2021). "How a 3D-printed graft could speed healing of ruptured eardrums". STAT. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  42. ^ Haseltine, William A. (August 9, 2021). "Healing Ruptured Eardrums With A New 3-D Printed Graft". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  43. ^ Walrath, Rowan (March 30, 2021). "Inside the Wyss Institute project engineering 'fats on demand'". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  44. ^ Leff, Jessica (April 27, 2021). "The power duo creating the future of sustainability". Wyss Institute. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  45. ^ Oliver, Suzanne (2021-03-27). "High-Tech Face Masks Aim to Step Up the Fight Against Covid-19". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  46. ^ Verma, Pranshu (June 29, 2021). "A face mask that can detect COVID? Harvard, MIT researchers have the technology to make it possible". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  47. ^ LeMieux, Julianna (August 2, 2021). "Methods to Detect Viruses Get a Boost, Thanks to the COVID-19 Response". Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  48. ^ "The iQ Group Global secures worldwide license for Harvard University's eRapid technology for at-home diagnostic testing". Yahoo! Finance. March 8, 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  49. ^ Robinson-McCarthy, Lindsey R.; Mijalis, Alexander J.; Filsinger, Gabriel T.; de Puig, Helena; Donghia, Nina M.; Schaus, Thomas E.; Rasmussen, Robert A.; Ferreira, Raphael; Lunshof, Jeantine E.; Chao, George; Ter-Ovanesyan, Dmitry (2021-01-15). "Anomalous COVID-19 tests hinder researchers". Science. 371 (6526): 244–245. doi:10.1126/science.abf8873. ISSN 0036-8075.
  50. ^ Wu, Katherine J. (2020-11-12). "These Researchers Tested Positive. But the Virus Wasn't the Cause". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  51. ^ Quinn, Cristina (May 4, 2020). "In The Age Of Coronavirus, How Doctors Are Becoming Inventors". GBH News. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  52. ^ Walrath, Rowan (June 18, 2021). "Will Fast Friendships Last?". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  53. ^ "Harvard University licenses nasal swab collection technology to Rhinostics". Medical Device Network. May 5, 2021. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  54. ^ Walrath, Rowan (June 18, 2020). "Wyss Institute gets $16M to repurpose FDA-approved drugs for Covid-19". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  55. ^ Weintraub, Arlene (2021-05-03). "How new 'lung-on-a-chip' models from Harvard are advancing COVID-19 drug discovery". Fierce Biotech. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  56. ^ "Cantex to Expand Development of Its Drug, Azeliragon, Collaborating with Harvard's Wyss Institute, as a Treatment of COVID-19 and Other Inflammatory Lung Diseases". Yahoo! Finance. February 24, 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
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