Daijiworld Media Network – Boston

Boston, Sep 19: The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has received funding from Wellcome Leap’s $50 million “The Missed Vital Sign” program to create the world’s first human model of heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB)—a condition affecting nearly one in three women of reproductive age but long overlooked in healthcare.

Using its pioneering Organ Chip technology, the Wyss team will replicate healthy menstrual cycles and HMB on lab-grown uterus chips lined with human endometrial cells, stroma, and microvasculature. Researchers will combine multi-omics analysis with AI-driven tools to uncover early biomarkers, pinpoint causal factors, and identify potential non-hormonal therapies, aiming to reduce the current average five-year wait for effective treatment to as little as five months.

HMB is more common than asthma or diabetes and leads to serious consequences:

• Every minute in the U.S., a woman needs a blood transfusion due to menstrual bleeding.
• Up to 50% of reproductive-age women globally suffer iron deficiency, with chronic HMB a major cause.
• U.S. women with HMB miss an average of 3.6 work weeks annually, costing the economy over $94 billion.
• Anxiety and depression rates are triple those of the general female population.

“By creating the first physiologically relevant human model of heavy menstrual bleeding, we hope to uncover its root causes and unlock new, life-changing treatments that can reach patients in months rather than years,” said Dr. Don Ingber, Wyss Founding Director and principal investigator of the project.

The initiative builds on Wyss Institute’s five years of breakthroughs in women’s health, including Organ Chip models of the vagina, cervix, and fallopian tubes. The project is part of the institute’s Women’s Health Catalyst, aimed at closing critical gaps in diagnostics and therapeutics for women worldwide.