Wyss Institute
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Cambridge, MA, United States
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Past articles by Wyss:
Sensing Parkinson’s symptoms
MyoExo integrates a series of sensors into a wearable device capable of detecting slight changes in muscle strain and bulging, enabling it to measure and track the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Credit: Oluwaseun Araromi By Matthew Goisman/SEAS Communications Nearly one million people in the United States live with Parkinson’s disease. The degenerative condition affects the neurons in the… → Read More
Team builds first living robots that can reproduce
AI-designed (C-shaped) organisms push loose stem cells (white) into piles as they move through their environment. Credit: Douglas Blackiston and Sam Kriegman By Joshua Brown, University of Vermont Communications To persist, life must reproduce. Over billions of years, organisms have evolved many ways of replicating, from budding plants to sexual animals to invading viruses. Now scientists at the… → Read More
Face masks that can diagnose COVID-19
Most people associate the term “wearable” with a fitness tracker, smartwatch, or wireless earbuds. But what if cutting-edge biotechnology were integrated into your clothing, and could warn you when you were exposed to something dangerous? A team of researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has… → Read More
Wielding a laser beam deep inside the body
The laser steering device is able to trace complex trajectories such as an exposed wire as well as a word within geometrical shapes. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University A microrobotic opto-electro-mechanical device able to steer a laser beam with high speed and a large range of motion could enhance the possibilities of minimally invasive surgeries By Benjamin Boettner Minimally invasive… → Read More
Robotic swarm swims like a school of fish
Bluebots are fish-shaped robots that can coordinate their movements in three dimensions underwater, rather than the two dimensions previously achieved by Kilobots. Credit: Harvard SEAS By Leah Burrows / SEAS Communications Schools of fish exhibit complex, synchronized behaviors that help them find food, migrate, and evade predators. No one fish or sub-group of fish coordinates these movements,… → Read More
Ultra-sensitive and resilient sensor for soft robotic systems
Ultra-sensitive and resilient sensor for soft robotic systems → Read More
Wearable technologies to make rehab more precise
A team led by Wyss Associate Faculty member Paolo Bonato, Ph.D., found in a recent study that wearable technology is suitable to accurately track motor recovery of individuals with brain injuries and thus allow clinicians to choose more effective interventions and to improve outcomes. Credit: Shutterstock/Dmytro Zinkevych By Tim Sullivan / Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Communications A group… → Read More
Cutting surgical robots down to size
By Lindsay Brownell Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, in which a surgeon uses tools and a tiny camera inserted into small incisions to perform operations, has made surgical procedures safer for both patients and doctors over the last half-century. Recently, surgical robots have started to appear in operating rooms to further assist surgeons by allowing them to manipulate multiple tools at… → Read More
Next-generation cockroach-inspired robot is small but mighty
Next-generation cockroach-inspired robot is small but mighty → Read More
New study uses robots to uncover the connections between the human mind and walking control
New study uses robots to uncover the connections between the human mind and walking control → Read More
The Tentacle Bot
Of all the cool things about octopuses (and there are a lot), their arms may rank among the coolest. Two-thirds of an octopus’s neurons are in its arms, meaning each arm literally has a mind of its own. Octopus arms can untie knots, open childproof bottles, and wrap around prey of any shape or size. The hundreds of suckers that cover their arms can form strong seals even on rough surfaces… → Read More
A gentle grip on gelatinous creatures
Jellyfish are about 95% water, making them some of the most diaphanous, delicate animals on the planet. But the remaining 5% of them have yielded important scientific discoveries, like green fluorescent protein (GFP) that is now used extensively by scientists to study gene expression, and life-cycle reversal that could hold the keys to combating aging. Jellyfish may very well harbor other,… → Read More
Suit up with a robot to walk AND run more easily
The light-weight versatile exosuit assists hip extension during uphill walking and at different running speeds in natural terrain. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University By Benjamin Boettner Between walking at a leisurely pace and running for your life, human gaits can cover a wide range of speeds. Typically, we choose the gait that allows us to consume the least amount of energy at a… → Read More
The RoboBee flies solo
Changes to the Robobee — including an additional pair of wings and improvements to the actuators and transmission ratio — made the vehicle more efficient and allowed the addition of solar cells and an electronics panel. This Robobee is the first to fly without a power cord and is the lightest, untethered vehicle to achieve sustained flight. Credit: Harvard Microrobotics Lab/Harvard SEAS By Leah… → Read More
The little robot that could
Root is controlled using an iPad app that has three different levels of coding, allowing students as young as four years old to learn the fundamentals of programming. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University iRobot Corp. announced its acquisition of Root Robotics, Inc., whose educational Root coding robot got its start as a summer research project at the Wyss Institute for Biologically… → Read More
Laying the ground for robotic strategies in environmental protection
Laying the ground for robotic strategies in environmental protection → Read More
A safe, wearable soft sensor
This biocompatible sensor is made from a non-toxic, highly conductive liquid solution that could be used in diagnostics, therapeutics, human-computer interfaces, and virtual reality. Credit: Harvard SEAS By Leah Burrows Children born prematurely often develop neuromotor and cognitive developmental disabilities. The best way to reduce the impacts of those disabilities is to catch them early… → Read More
Robots with sticky feet can climb up, down, and all around
Robots with sticky feet can climb up, down, and all around → Read More
Multi-joint, personalized soft exosuit breaks new ground
Multi-joint, personalized soft exosuit breaks new ground → Read More
A new spin for soft micro-actuators
Credit: Wyss Institute Harvard By Benjamin Boettner Manipulating delicate tissues such as blood vessels during difficult surgeries, or gripping fragile organisms in the deep sea presents a challenge to surgeons and researchers alike. Roboticists have made inroads into this problem by developing soft actuators on the microscale that are made of elastic materials and, through the expansion or… → Read More