What sorts of breakthroughs are possible by modifying an organism’s genome – something researchers are now able to do ever more cheaply and efficiently? Researchers around the world are already able to program microbes to treat wastewater, generate electricity, manufacture jet fuel, create hemoglobin, and fabricate new drugs. What sounds like science fiction to most of us might be a reality in our lifetimes: the ability to build diagnostic tools that live within our bodies, or find ways to eradicate malaria from mosquito lines, or possibly even to make genetic improvements in humans that are passed down to future generations. Wyss Institute Founding Core Faculty Members Pam Silver and George Church discuss the high-impact benefits of their synthetic biology work, as well as how they manage the potential of unintended consequences.

Transcript: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wyss-prod/app/uploads/2015/05/26123354/Ep001_Disruptive_SyntheticBiology.pdf

Disruptive: Synthetic Biology | Wyss Institute

Sepsis is a bloodstream infection caused by an uncontrolled spread of pathogens and release of toxins that can lead to systemic inflammation and multi-organ failure. Sepsis is the leading cause of hospital deaths and kills at least eight million people worldwide each year. Current treatment is to administer patients broad-spectrum antibiotics because there is often not enough time to identify the specific cause of infection. Diagnosis takes two to five days and every hour one waits can increase the risk of death by 5-9%.

In this episode of Disruptive, Wyss Institute Founding Director Don Ingber and Senior Staff Scientist Mike Super discuss how their team developed a new therapeutic device inspired by the human spleen. This blood-cleansing approach can remove sepsis-causing pathogens from circulating blood without ever needing to know their identity. In animal studies, treatment with this device reduced the number of targeted pathogens and toxins circulating in the bloodstream by more than 99%. This device may radically transform the way sepsis is treated.

Transcript: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wyss-prod/app/uploads/2017/08/09180758/Ep3_Disruptive_Confronting_Sepsis.pdf

Disruptive: Confronting Sepsis | Wyss Institute

How can a materials science approach lead to medical breakthroughs?
In this episode of Disruptive, Wyss Core Faculty Member Dave Mooney discusses programmable nanomaterials approaches to fighting disease. Mooney explains how a cancer vaccine, developed by his team and currently in a clinical trial at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, can train one’s own immune system to target specific cancer cells. He also describes the development of novel hydrogels that find application in drug delivery systems and tissue regeneration. Chris Gemmiti, a member of the Wyss Institute’s Business Development team, joins the conversation to discuss the Wyss process of translation and what is involved in bringing the hydrogel drug delivery technology from bench-to-bedside.

Transcript: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wyss-prod/app/uploads/2017/08/10130728/Ep4_Disruptive_Cancer_Vaccine__Hydrogel_Drug_Delivery.pdf

Disruptive: Cancer Vaccine & Hydrogel Drug Delivery | Wyss Institute

How can DNA be programmed to build novel structures, devices, and robots?

We have taken our understanding of DNA to another level, beginning to take advantage of some of DNA’s properties that have served nature so well, but in ways nature itself may have never pursued. Humans can now use DNA as a medium for nano-scale engineering. The resulting newly programmed and built DNA structures can enhance our ability to see and study molecular interactions and the inner-life of cells. As these structures become increasingly complex and versatile, they have the potential to spawn entirely new and revolutionary technologies for biological monitoring, therapeutic delivery, and applications scientists have not even thought of yet.

In this episode of Disruptive, Wyss faculty members William Shih, Wesley Wong, and Peng Yin discuss what it is like being on the frontier of science, and the potential applications of their DNA-programming work.

Transcript: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wyss-prod/app/uploads/2017/08/09175352/Ep5_Disruptive_Molecular-Robotics.pdf

Disruptive: Molecular Robotics | Wyss Institute

A bionic leaf combines advanced catalysts with engineered bacteria to produce hydrocarbon fuels from light, water, and carbon dioxide.

Melding Biology and Chemistry in a Bionic Leaf

Robots - The Podcast for News and Views on Robotics

Soft Robotics Toolkit

Michael Super, PhD, of the Wyss Institute, shares his story of how the spread of infectious disease throughout South Africa and London inspired him to pursue human health and combat disease.

Protein Engineering: Editing Functionality

There are roughly 120,000 people in the United States on waiting lists for live-saving organ transplants, with only about 30,000 transplants happening every year. To address this great challenge of organ shortages, a team at the Wyss Institute led by Core Faculty member Jennifer Lewis, Sc.D., is developing a method for 3D bioprinting organ tissues with requisite vasculature for eventual organ transplant.

In this episode of Disruptive, Jennifer Lewis is joined by Wyss Institute Research Associate Mark Skylar-Scott, Ph.D., and former Wyss Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Kimberly Homan, Ph.D., to talk about the current status of their work, challenges they face, and the next steps in their path to bioprint human organs.

Disruptive: 3D Bioprinting

The Wyss Institute uses Nature's design principles to develop bioinspired technologies that will revolutionize medicine and create a more sustainable world.