Every year, more than 18 million people around the world are told, “You have cancer.” In the U.S., nearly half of all men and more than one-third of women will develop some kind of cancer during their lifetimes, and 600,000-plus die from it annually. Despite the billions of dollars and countless new treatments that have…
Keeping the Genetic Code Clean
Many life-threatening diseases are caused or exacerbated by a mere change of a single nucleotide building block in the universal genetic DNA code. Such “point mutations” can turn a single cell in the human body into a cancerous cell that goes on to grow into a tumor, or they can turn antibiotic-sensitive into antibiotic-resistant bacteria…
Personal Cancer Vaccines Get Their Own Boost
As cancer cells continuously mutate their DNA, they also produce proteins that are altered from their normal counterparts by small changes in their peptide sequences. Just like every cell in our body presents part of its peptide repertoire to our immune system to identify itself as “self,” cancer cells present their faulty neopeptides (or neoantigens),…
Low-cost Wearables Manufactured by Hybrid 3-D Printing
Human skin must flex and stretch to accommodate the body’s every move. Anything worn tight on the body must also be able to flex around muscles and joints, which helps explain why synthetic fabrics like spandex are popular in activewear. Wearable electronic devices that aim to track and measure the body’s movements must possess similar…
Soft and Stretchy Fabric-Based Sensors for Wearable Robots
Wearable technologies – from heart rate monitors to virtual reality headsets – are exploding in popularity in both the consumer and research spaces, but most of the electronic sensors that detect and transmit data from wearables are made of hard, inflexible materials that can restrict both the wearer’s natural movements and the accuracy of the…
Medical Implants Defended by a Slippery Slope
Implanted medical devices such as left ventricular-assist devices for patients with heart failure or other support systems for patients with respiratory, liver or other end organ disease save lives every day. However, bacteria that form infectious biofilms on those devices, called device-associated infections, not only often sabotage their success but also contribute to the rampant…
Engineered, Functional Human Tissues on the Horizon
Toward the ultimate goal of engineering human tissues and organs that can mimic native function for use in drug screening, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine, a Wyss Institute team led by Core Faculty member Jennifer Lewis, Sc.D., has made another foundational advance using three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting. This work builds upon their demonstrated ability to bioprint…