Abstract
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University was formed based on the recognition that breakthrough discoveries cannot change the world if they never leave the laboratory. The Institute's mission is to discover the biological principles that Nature uses to build living things, and to harness these insights to create biologically inspired engineering innovations to advance human health and create a more sustainable world. Since its launch in 2009, the Institute has developed a new model for innovation, collaboration, and technology translation within academia, breaking “silos” to enable collaborations that cross institutional and disciplinary barriers. Institute faculty and staff engage in high‐risk research that leads to transformative breakthroughs. The biological principles uncovered are harnessed to develop new engineering solutions for medicine and healthcare, as well as nonmedical areas, such as energy, architecture, robotics, and manufacturing. These technologies are translated into commercial products and therapies through collaborations with clinical investigators, corporate alliances, and the formation of new start‐ups that are driven by a unique internal business development team including entrepreneurs‐in‐residence with domain‐specific expertise. Here, we describe this novel organizational model that the Institute has developed to change the paradigm of how fundamental discovery, medical technology innovation, and commercial translation are carried out at the academic‐industrial interface.
Highlights
Engineering has transformed medicine over the past 50 years by applying engineering principles to solve medical problems
We provide an overview of the organizational model we have developed to enable cross-disciplinary research collaborations, support technology innovation, augment intellectual property generation, and ensure efficient translation of discoveries into products that enter the marketplace in order to enhance human health
We primarily focus on medical challenges, we realized that there are many technologies that exist in nonmedical areas, (3D printing-based manufacturing, for example), which could add huge value for medicine, and there are biomedical technologies and approaches that could be valuable for nonmedical fields ranging from energy and manufacturing to data storage
Summary
Engineering has transformed medicine over the past 50 years by applying engineering principles to solve medical problems. The Wyss Institute’s research and development efforts are currently organized around six enabling technology platforms and two crossplatform initiatives,[1] each composed of teams of institute faculty, students, fellows, and staff who develop the new cutting edge technological capabilities necessary to enable a new wave of bioinspired materials and devices These eight focus areas provide the Institute and its collaborators with unique technical resources and state-of-the-art equipment, as well as a rich, open, interdisciplinary environment for the students and staff to learn how to translate ideas and discoveries into products with great clinical or commercial value. The Institute’s translation engine has—in a similar fashion-enabled the translation of numerous technologies,[24] including a method (FISSEQ) for simultaneously sequencing and mapping thousands of RNAs within cells and tissues to advance development of diagnostics and discover new drug targets[25]; a new approach to super-resolution imaging by leveraging the Institute’s DNA-PAINT technology, which leverages transient binding of fluorophores to specific targets mediated by defined DNA–DNA interactions[16]; and a family of materials and coatings that repel virtually all fluids and biological fouling agents in industrial, medical, and consumer applications.[6,26]
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