Last weekend, Wyss researchers co-hosted a booth with our friends at ECHO at the Cambridge Science Carnival, a family-friendly science event. They taught visitors about Organ Chips, microfluidic devices lined with living human cells that mimic human organs.

From developing plastics that actually break down to adhesive gels for surgery, the Wyss Institute’s materials scientists are working to save the future. In this video, four Wyss researchers speak with host Ashley Christine to discuss how they’re using materials science to make a positive impact.

Wyss startup Prapela is leveraging stochastic resonance technology developed at the Institute to produce an inexpensive mattress pad that delivers barely-detectable random vibrations to help soothe infants and normalize their breathing to address neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome and infant apnea.

CircaVent is a high-throughput drug screening platform that combines predictive algorithms, preclinical models, and human brain organoids to efficiently identify and test drugs that could treat the underlying causes of bipolar disorder.

Research from Natalie Artzi’s group at the Wyss and @massgeneralbrigham.bsky.social developed a cancer vaccine that self-assembles in the body and forces tumors to become more visible to the immune system.

Last week, we co-hosted a screening of “The New Gold Standard” with Wyss startup @emulatebio.bsky.social. The film explores the emergence of human-based research technologies, such as Organ Chips, & how using them can fundamentally change and improve how drugs are discovered, tested, and approved.

The Wyss Validation Projects reflect the breadth and depth of work at the Institute. These 23 teams receive dedicated funding, technical resources, business development support, and market research to move their technologies beyond discovery and further de-risk them, with the goal of translation.

Wyss researchers have developed TIBs, a biomaterial-based therapy that delivers regulatory T cells to injury sites and maintains their pro-regenerative potential there over extended periods of time. This could facilitate tissue regeneration in musculoskeletal diseases & following injuries.

Researchers at the Wyss, @harvardmed.bsky.social, and the @stanforddoerr.bsky.social worked together to develop a new way to potentially cool the planet by accelerating rock weathering, the natural breakdown and dissolving of rocks and minerals.

A new discovery about transfer RNAs led to a tool called AGENTEX that allows researchers to produce synthetic proteins faster, more safely, and at a larger scale than ever before. This work promises to expand the development of novel protein-based medicines and other materials.