Latest news with #Espeseth
Business Wire
02-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Sail Biomedicines to Present New Preclinical Data on Malaria eRNA™ Vaccine Candidates at the 2025 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sail Biomedicines, a Flagship Pioneering company and leader in RNA-based programmable medicines, today announced that it will present new preclinical data from its malaria vaccine program at the 2025 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting, taking place virtually June 1-4. The findings highlight the potential of Sail's Endless RNA™ (eRNA) platform to enable durable antigen expression and drive potent immune responses for protection from malaria challenge. "By engineering RNA for extended stability and translation, we are demonstrating the potential of Sail's eRNA platform to support the next generation of vaccines,' said Amy Espeseth, Ph.D., SVP, Head of Integrated Sciences at Sail Biomedicines. Share At the meeting, Sail will present new preclinical results demonstrating that its AI-driven design of eRNA vaccine candidates encoding a R21-based malaria antigen successfully formed virus-like particles with durable expression in vitro. In mouse immunogenicity studies, two doses of eRNA R21 vaccines generated robust anti-PfCSP antibody responses, with titers equal to and exceeding those reported for three doses of licensed malaria vaccines in published studies. In a mouse malaria challenge model, two doses of Sail's lead eRNA vaccine candidate substantially reduced liver parasite burden and achieved sterile protection in 53% of animals, suggesting a potential advantage over licensed malaria vaccines that are administered over three doses. 'These results demonstrate how Sail's eRNA platform can address key challenges in vaccine development, particularly by supporting more potent immune responses with a reduced dosing regimen,' said Amy Espeseth, Ph.D., SVP, Head of Integrated Sciences at Sail Biomedicines, who will be delivering the presentation. 'We believe that platforms like eRNA could play an important role in enabling more effective prevention of diseases like malaria.' Sail's malaria vaccine program, supported by funding from the Gates Foundation, focuses on optimizing the eRNA payload using AI to maximize antigen expression and durability of immune response. The vaccine candidates leverage Sail's proprietary Endless RNA format, which is engineered to resist degradation and extend translation, providing the opportunity for stronger, longer-lasting immune responses compared to conventional vaccine modalities. "By engineering RNA for extended stability and translation, we are demonstrating the potential of Sail's eRNA platform to support the next generation of vaccines,' said Dr. Espeseth. 'The manufacturability of eRNA coupled with its ability to generate robust immune responses supports its use as a vaccine platform for a wide range of infectious diseases." Collaborators at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute performed all challenge studies. About Sail Biomedicines Sail Biomedicines is pioneering the integrative design and deployment of fully programmable medicines to transform patient care. Sail's platform combines first-in-class programmable circular RNA technology (Endless RNA™ or eRNA™), and an industry-leading platform of programmable nanoparticles, to unlock comprehensive programming of medicines for the first time. By leveraging cutting-edge eRNA and nanoparticle deployment technology, Sail is building a wealth of data, enabling unparalleled use of generative AI techniques to identify and design fully programmable medicines that are potent, targeted, versatile, and tunable. Sail was founded by Flagship Pioneering. For more, visit and follow us on X (@SailBiomeds) and LinkedIn. This research is based on work funded by the Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Gates Foundation.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump administration again slashes funding for Obamacare program that helps Wisconsinites find health coverage
A Wisconsin program that helps people sign up for health insurance will likely face steep cuts later this year, following an announcement that the federal government would slash its funding. This month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it would cut funding nationwide for navigator programs, which help enroll people in health coverage, to $10 million, a drop of about 90%. "A cut of this size will impact our ability to provide all the services and all the information in as timely a way as possible," said Allison Espeseth, director of Covering Wisconsin, the navigator program for the state. Federal funding makes up about three-quarters of Covering Wisconsin's budget, Espeseth said. The cuts would occur starting in its next budget cycle in late August, she said. Last budget cycle, Covering Wisconsin received a grant of $3.1 million from the federal government for the year, according to federal data. A cut of 90% would leave about $300,000. In its press release, CMS said the current funding levels don't 'represent a reasonable return on investment" and that reducing the program's budget will save $360 million over the next four years. Navigator programs were created under the Affordable Care Act, to provide free, impartial help signing up for health insurance. The job of navigators goes beyond enrolling patients in health coverage through the marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act. They also help people sign up for BadgerCare Plus or other Medicaid programs. They answer people's questions about eligibility for various insurance programs or subsidies, and provide education and outreach in underserved communities. "Navigators make it our role to constantly stay on top of all the changes, all the latest process changes, policy changes, program changes, so that when that moment comes, when it can feel overwhelming, you can turn to us," Espeseth said. Navigators differ from insurance brokers in key ways. Brokers, who rely on commissions, were far less likely to help consumers sign up for Medicaid, the publicly-funded insurance program for low-income people, or for the Children's Health Insurance Program, also known as CHIP, according to a 2022 survey by the health policy research group KFF. Last year, Covering Wisconsin helped enroll more than 9,600 people in marketplace coverage or in Medicaid, Espeseth said. More broadly, the agency assisted around 60,000 people with questions or other issues that year, she said. President Donald Trump's administration previously cut funding for navigator programs, in his first term, resulting in lower enrollment in health coverage – and particularly, marketplace coverage – among lower-income adults, according to a study by Rebecca Myerson, an associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Coverage also declined among adults younger than 45 and Hispanic people, she found. President Joe Biden restored funding for the programs when he took office in 2021. In this month's release from CMS, the agency said navigators weren't enrolling enough people in health plans to justify the current cost, echoing the same reasoning given during Trump's first term. The release cited enrollment numbers in marketplace coverage, but not in Medicaid and CHIP. CMS said the move to reduce funding would result in lower user fees and premiums for people enrolled in marketplace coverage, since the navigator program is paid for by user fees. Espeseth didn't know exactly how the cuts would affect Covering Wisconsin, but she said the agency would continue to help people enroll in coverage, though in a diminished capacity. "We will still be here. We will still serve as the navigator agency for Wisconsin," she said. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin program that helps with health coverage to see steep cuts
