Technologies

Tunable hydrogels that enhance the efficacies of adoptively transferred immune cells during their manufacturing by mimicking target tissue biomechanics.

Through a simple and effective metabolic labeling approach, patient-derived T cells engineered to carry immune-enhancing cytokines on their surfaces could help expand adoptive T cell therapies to treatment of solid tumors and improve blood cancer therapies.

The Problem Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are valued for their ability to secrete compounds that modulate the body’s immune system, making them an attractive solution for existing problems with cell therapies including host-vs-graft disease and organ transplant rejections. However, MSCs are rapidly cleared from the body and can come under fire from the immune system....

Soft, conductive hydrogels match the physical properties of the human brain, enabling the creation of electrodes and implantable devices that can improve brain-machine interfaces while reducing the risk of injury.

FeCILL is novel delivery vehicle for antifungal drugs that targets them right to the infection site and reduces harmful side effects in patients with severe fungal infections.

A Band-Aid® adhesive bandage is an effective treatment for stopping external bleeding from skin wounds, but an equally viable option for internal bleeding does not yet exist. Surgical glues are often used inside the body instead of traditional wound closure techniques like stitches, staples, and clips because they reduce the patient’s time in the hospital...

In emergency medicine, blood lactate levels are a reliable real-time indicator of the severity and mortality risk of conditions that occur as a result of poor blood circulation and oxygen supply to organs and tissues (hypoperfusion), such as in patients with sepsis, cardiac arrest, stroke, major trauma, cystic fibrosis and other conditions. Lactate levels also...

OMNIVAX is an immuno-material-based vaccine platform technology able to create safe and effective therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines against viral and bacterial threats. Its modular approach enables the rapid creation of vaccines for pathogens using known and unknown antigens. Current approaches include vaccines against some viral diseases.

An implantable bone marrow cryogel to accelerate the full reconstitution of the immune system, including T cell immunity, in patients that received chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. This could provide an off-the-shelf, material-based solution for patients with severe blood disorders whose immunity is recovering only slowly after treatment.

Immunotherapy, or tweaking the body’s own immune system to treat disease, is attracting significant attention in the medical field for its potential to offer long-lasting cures with fewer side effects than chemotherapy or other drugs. One type of immunotherapy involves isolating T cells (a type of white blood cell) from a patient’s body, sometimes modifying...

Wyss researchers have developed a new approach to delivering drugs and therapeutic cells using biocompatible and biodegradable hydrogels made of alginate, a naturally occurring polysaccharide from brown algae. Injectable hydrogels could greatly improve clinical ability to provide extended drug release and controlled delivery throughout the body or at targeted local sites.  The method holds promising...