Wyss: Looking to Nature for Inspiration

Soft electronics are an emerging class of electronic devices that are flexible and stretchable, designed to move with the body. A team from Harvard’s Wyss Institute and Harvard SEAS has developed a new 3D printing platform that integrates hard and soft electronic elements into durable, stretchable sensors and enables rapid design and manufacturing of soft electronics. This is achieved by first printing a stretchable conductive ink. As the printed ink is stretched, its electrical resistivity increases. Next, surface mounted electrical components are digitally pick-and-placed in precise locations. Because the soft matrix and conductive electrodes are 3D-printed, researchers have complete control over where the electronic features are placed. The printed wearable sensor and integrated electronic device is mounted on a stretchable textile fabric. This platform rapidly accelerates the design and additive manufacturing of customized, wearable electronic devices.

Marine fouling occurs when organisms attach themselves to underwater objects like boats, rope, pipes and building structures. Mussels are one of the biggest culprits. Once attached, they are difficult to remove, leading to operational downtime, increased energy use and damage. Paints and coatings are currently used to prevent marine fouling, but are frequently toxin-based and not very effective, with adverse environmental and economic impact. Researchers are Harvard's Wyss Institute and Harvard SEAS have developed non-toxic, lubricant-infused, slippery surface coatings. Their collaborators at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, showed that these surfaces interfered with the Asian green mussels' (Perna viridis) ability to adhere to solid surfaces. The research team also tested their slippery coatings at the NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Scituate, MA. The marine sanctuary field site is home to the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) and a variety of other biofouling organisms, all of which seemed to be repelled by the coating. The team is continuing to test their surfaces at different field sites around the world. This slippery surface coating technology has many potential applications in maritime industries. For more information, please visit: wyss.harvard.edu/slippery-liquid-surfaces-confuse-mussels-to-stop-them-from-sticking-to-underwater-structures/

This video explains how exosuit technology, developed at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, applied to ankle movements helps patients post-stroke regain a more normal gait. Credit: Rolex Awards/Wyss Institute at Harvard University For more information, visit: https://wyss.harvard.edu/post-stroke-patients-reach-terra-firma-with-wyss-exosuit-technology

In this video, Wyss Institute and Harvard Medical School researchers George Church and Seth Shipman explain how they engineered a new CRISPR system-based technology that enables the chronological recording of digital information, like that representing still and moving images, in living bacteria. For more information, please visit: https://wyss.harvard.edu/taking-cells-out-to-the-movies-with-new-crispr-technology

This textile-based sensor effectively registers fine motor movements of the human body, taking researchers one step closer to creating soft, wearable robots. For more information, please visit: wyss.harvard.edu/soft-and-stretchy-fabric-based-sensors-for-wearable-robots

Building upon previous soft exosuit technology, researchers at the Wyss Institute and Harvard SEAS have developed a soft exosuit for running. This exosuit applies forces to the hip joint using thin, flexible wires, assisting the muscles during each stride. Using an off-board actuation system, compared to not wearing the exosuit, this exosuit can reduce the metabolic cost of running by 5.4%. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University This study was funded by the DARPA Warrior Web program, the National Science Foundation, Samsung, Wyss Institute, and Harvard Paulson School. For more information, please visit: wyss.harvard.edu/harder-better-faster-stronger-tethered-soft-exosuit-reduces-the-metabolic-cost-of-running

Researchers at the Wyss Institute and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital shed light on how humans respond – or do not respond – to forces applied by rehabilitative robots. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University For more information, please visit wyss.harvard.edu/shedding-light-on-how-humans-walk-with-robots

Wyss Core Faculty, Dave Mooney, explains our new Immuno-Materials focus area which adds a new dimension to immunotherapy in that it harnesses materials to make treatments more efficient and effective. These material-based systems are capable of modulating immune cells and releasing them into the body where they can treat diseases.

It is well known that as plants grow, their stems and shoots respond to outside signals like light and gravity. But if plants all have similar stimuli, why are there so many different plant shapes? Using simple mathematical ideas, Harvard University researchers constructed a framework that explains and quantifies the different shapes of plant stems. Credit: Harvard SEAS

Project Abbie is inspired by the story of Abbie Benford, who succumbed to complications related to anaphylaxis just eight days before her 16th birthday. The Wyss Institute, in collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital, is developing a wearable, non-invasive device that could sense anaphylaxis and automatically inject epinephrine in individuals who are unable to do so themselves; a device that could have saved Abbie’s life.

Researchers at the Wyss Institute and the Personal Genome Project are using Lumosity games to evaluate memory functions and response times. The genomes of high performers will be sequenced, with the goal of uncovering the relationship between genetics, memory, attention, and reaction speed. This video featuring George Church, Core Faculty of the Wyss Institute and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, illustrates how engaging the games are as he becomes so engrossed in the them that he imagines them occurring in real life. To learn more about the Wyss Institute PGP-Lumosity study, please visit wyss.harvard.edu/pgp-lumosity

In this video, see the laser-assisted method developed by Wyss Core Faculty member Jennifer Lewis that allows metal to be 3D printed in midair. Credit: Lewis Lab / Wyss Institute at Harvard University For more information, please visit wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/257

Computational thinking and programming underlie the digital world around us – yet K-16 teachers have been challenged to find the right teaching tool to instill coding and programming skills in beginners of a wide age range. Recognizing the pressing need for young students to be digitally literate and the remarkable educational power of robots, a team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has developed Root, a coding robot that will engage students at an early age and guide the growth of their coding skills. By programming Root through exciting activities and games, today’s coding students will be tomorrow’s digital innovators. For more information, please visit: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpage/629

Printing vessel vasculature is essential for sustaining functional living tissues. Until now, bioengineers have had difficulty building thick tissues, lacking a method to embed vascular networks. A 3D bioprinting method invented at the Wyss Institute and Harvard SEAS embeds a grid of vasculature into thick tissue laden with human stem cells and connective matrix. Printed within a custom-made housing, this method can be used to create tissue of any shape. Once printed, an inlet and outlet own opposite ends are perfused with fluids, nutrients, and cell growth factors, which control stem cell differentiation and sustain cell functions. By flowing growth factors through the vasculature, stem cells can be differentiated into a variety of tissue cell types. This vascularized 3D printing process could open new doors to tissue replacement and engineering. Footage credit: David Kolesky, Lori Sanders, and Jennifer Lewis For more information, please visit: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/250/

A team at the Wyss Institute and Harvard SEAS has developed a new microscale printing method to create transformable objects. These "4D-printed" objects go a step beyond 3D printing to incorporate a fourth dimension–time. The method was inspired by the way plants change shape over time in response to environmental stimuli. This orchid-shaped structure is printed with a hydrogel composite ink containing aligned cellulose fibrils, which enable anisotropic swelling. A proprietary mathematical model developed by the team precisely predicts how the fibrils will swell in water. After printing, the 4D orchid is immersed in water to activate its shape transformation. Credit: A.S. Gladman, E. Matsumoto, L.K. Sanders, and J.A. Lewis / Wyss Institute at Harvard University For more information, please visit: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/239

In this video, two types of soft robotic grippers are shown successfully collecting coral samples at the bottom of the Red Sea. The first gripper features opposing pairs of bending actuators, while the second gripper - inspired by the coiling action of a boa constrictor - can access tight spaces and clutch small and irregular shaped objects. The grippers were developed by Wyss Core Faculty member Robert Wood and Wyss Mechanical Engineer Kevin Galloway in collaboration with researchers from Baruch College, CUNY, and University of Rhode Island. For more information, please visit: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/238/

There is a technology revolution – a revolution inspired by nature, built upon collaboration, self-assembly and disruptive innovation. The Wyss Institute is crossing boundaries and disrupting the status quo to pioneer new technologies, new devices, and new therapeutics that harness the power of life itself. There is a technology revolution and it is happening at the Wyss Institute.

Development of new therapeutics for chronic lung diseases have been hindered by the inability to study them in vitro. To address this challenge, Wyss Institute researchers used their Organ-on-a-Chip technology to produce a microfluidic 'human lung small airway-on-a-chip.' The device, which is composed a clear rubber material, is lined by living Human lung small airway cells on one side and capillary blood vessel cells on the other, much like in the living lung. In the device, air flows over the top of the human lung cells and liquid medium containing white blood cells flow below capillary cell layer. In the airway chip, the lung cells have hair-like cilia that move rhythmically, helping the mucus flow out of the lung chip, just as they do in the living lung. Wyss researchers also have been able to line the chip with diseased cells from COPD patients, and these chips retain the features of patients¹ lungs with this disease, including an increased ability to become inflamed when exposed to viral or bacterial pathogens. And when inflammation is triggered in the chip, white blood cells flowing in the blood channel are stimulated to adhere to inflamed capillary blood vessel wall, as they do in our bodies. Using this disease model, researchers have identified new lung disease biomarkers, and demonstrated that the model can be used to test for new drugs for COPD as well as asthma. For more information, please visit: wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/235/

Genetically engineered E. coli containing a fluorescing red protein enabled a Wyss Institute and Harvard Medical School team to analyze the population fluctuations of gut microbes by comparing proportion of "marked" to "unmarked" cells. For more information, please visit: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/230

In this animation, learn how effective safeguarding mechanisms developed at the Wyss Institute and Harvard Medical School can be applied to ensure gene drive research is done responsibly in the laboratory. These safeguards enable responsible scientific investigation into how gene drives could one day be leveraged for the greater good of human health, agriculture, and the environment. For more information, please visit wyss.harvard.edu/227