Excited that our work to mature a new vaccine and therapeutics platform, with application of the technology to an important tick borne disease, is getting some recognition. Of course, where the rubber meets the road is in the data. More to come on that soon! www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

1/ 🧪 New paper out in @moltherapy.bsky.social: An RNA-to-RNA pipeline for rapid antiviral antibody development. www.cell.com/molecular-th... The goal was to use RNA vaccines to enable antibody discovery in alpacas and then develop those antibodies as RNA-encoded biologics

🧪Published my first commentary on RNA vaccines against nonenveloped viruses. www.cell.com/molecular-th...

Replication not required: mRNA vaccines take on non-enveloped viruses

Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), a respiratory pathogen increasingly associated with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM),1,2,3 represents a growing unmet need for vaccination. Kunishima et al. report an mRNA vaccin...

cell.com

In my new Nucleic Acid Insights interview, I discuss the evolving science of RNA therapeutics. Addresses safety, manufacturing, and delivery, and how HDT Bio’s LION platform moves beyond LNPs to enable potent, localized, extrahepatic RNA delivery. www.insights.bio/nucleic-acid...

Excited to announce our new ARPA-H award to “Close the DOORs” mapping how viruses exploit human cells and learning how to shut them. Grateful to @arpa-h.bsky.social and our amazing team! 🔗 www.mountsinai.org/about/newsro... #ARPAH #Virology #HostPathogen #Innovation #Science

New #NatureComms paper: Muscle-specific gene editing therapy via mammalian fusogen-directed virus-like particles. #Myoblue tinyurl.com/35wcweap

Muscle-specific gene editing therapy via mammalian fusogen-directed virus-like particles - Nature Communications

Genetic muscle diseases are difficult to treat due to challenges in delivering gene editors to muscles throughout the body. Here, authors engineer muscle-specific virus-like particles that fuse with s...

tinyurl.com

Follow up publication describing immunogenicity and efficacy in NHPs of historical and contemporary H5N1 vaccine compositions against challenge with contemporary cattle virus isolate. What we concluded in mice did not translate to NHPs. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A replicating RNA vaccine protects cynomolgus macaques against lethal clade 2.3.4.4b influenza A H5N1 virus challenge

LION-delivered replicating RNA vaccines are immunogenic and protect cynomolgus macaques against lethal influenza A (H5N1) virus challenge.

science.org

Jesse Erasmus@jesseerasmus.bsky.social · 2y ago

New paper! In collaboration with NIAID, we asked: how effective are vaccines designed against historical #H5N1 viruses in naïve mice challenged with the contemporary cattle virus? Turns out that the new isolates are different enough to warrant further evaluation of updated vaccine compositions. 🧪

Happy to announce that we have initiated a phase I clinical trial to evaluate safety and immunogenicity of our LION/repRNA vaccine against #CCHF. This is the culmination of a great partnership with NIAID, UTMB, and our federal sponsors. More to come! www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

FDA Greenlights HDT Bio's First-in-Class HDT-321 for the Prevention of Deadly Tick-Borne Disease

/PRNewswire/ -- HDT Bio Corporation, a U.S.-based clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing immune-enhancing solutions for global health, biodefense, and...

prnewswire.com

Even our project, which directly addressed the tolerability and upper respiratory tract immunity gaps highlighted by RFK Jr, was impacted by this decision. They clearly didn’t review the 22 contracts/grants and the data already generated under taxpayer investment. We are 3 yrs into our program…

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦@helenbranswell.bsky.social · last yr.

Pandemic preparedness in the US has been leveled a crippling blow with the cancellation of multiple #BARDA contracts to help develop mRNA vaccines. No other vaccine platform produces vaccine so quickly; without mRNA, Americans will have a long wait for pandemic vax. www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/m...

Excited to meet the D2R community!

D2R | DNA to RNA@d2rmcgill.bsky.social · last yr.

🧬 Register for D2R’s next hybrid seminar: Industry Insights with @jesseerasmus.bsky.social from HDT Bio 📅 Date: July 16th 🕰 Time: 1:00 - 2:00 PM 📍 Location: Zoom & in person 🔗 Register now: buff.ly/AayfR7c #RNA #Biotechnology

🧪 New paper from our team at HDT Bio highlighting that combo repRNA vaccines can lead to excessive innate activation that ultimately inhibits vaccine effectiveness in NHPs. Use of repRNA formulations with restricted biodistribution can alleviate systemic innate response and restore effectiveness.

Antigen-dependent interplay of formulation, systemic innate responses, and antibody responses to multi-component replicon RNA vaccination

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are a modular, non-viral nucleic acid delivery system. Here, Eygeris and colleagues report that addition of saponin molecules, such as quillaic acid, to LNP formulations can...

cell.com

Our latest preprint is now available doi.org/10.1101/2025...! Led by my postdoc, Luqiang Guo @luqiang.bsky.social, we determined a ~2.4 A resolution structure of the hantavirus glycoprotein tetramer on the surface of VLPs. Also determined structures of dimers of tetramers and Fab-bound tetramers.

I didn’t realize you could filter the posts of who you follow! The paper feed is just what I was looking for.

Alex Crits-Christoph@acritschristoph.bsky.social · last yr.

There is so, so much good science being shared and discussed on bsky right now. The news of its demise is quite backwards. If you are having trouble finding it among all of the very important political news, use the papersky feed that filters posts you follow to just papers: bsky.app/profile/pape...

Shook Nelson Mandela’s hand when I was 10 years old at some kind of gathering in a community park. Just remember him getting off a helicopter and walking through a crowd shaking hands, including mine.

Blunderbolt@bolt451.bsky.social · last yr.

Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction

Outstanding op-ed from Carole LaBonne Universities and the government: Which needs the other more? College-based research labs are the workhorses of national progress and prosperity. wapo.st/3ZR1vFm 1/n

Collab btwn NIAID (Dr. Andrea Marzi’s lab) and HDT Bio just published! 🧪 Filovirus gold-standard VSV vax platform compared to LION/repRNA (each encoding same antigen seq) for ability to provide single-dose protection in guinea pigs against Sudan virus challenge 🧵(1/2) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Single-dose replicon RNA Sudan virus vaccine uniformly protects female guinea pigs from disease - Nature Communications

Sudan virus (SUDV) outbreaks in Uganda created public health concerns due to a lack of approved vaccines. In this study, the authors develop a repRNA SUDV vaccine and demonstrate full protection of a ...

nature.com

I noticed this statement from NIH regarding durability of the inactivated approach. I didn’t see any durability data in the published studies of this candidate. Anyone aware of durability studies performed using inactivated virus platforms? I did one experiment in grad school (in thread below).

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦@helenbranswell.bsky.social · last yr.

There are a lot of questions being asked about the awarding of a $500M grant to an #NIH team to develop a new (old) vaccine platform that could be used for a "universal" #flu vaccine. www.statnews.com/2025/05/03/n...

Just published! Here we report immunogenicity and efficacy of our replicon RNA vaccine against Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in a cynomolgus macaque model of #CCHFV infection. Stay tuned as we advance this candidate in clinical trials. www.thelancet.com/journals/ebi...

A replicating RNA vaccine confers protection against Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in cynomolgus macaques

Our data demonstrate that our repNP vaccine and NP-specific antibody can protect against CCHFV in non-human primates.

thelancet.com

There are days in life that shake you. I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University & academic career... 1/🧵

Proteins are a source of glycans found in preparations of glycoRNA https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.17.643711v1

NIH is the best investment there is. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report

National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.

forbes.com

Beautiful day to stand up for science!

To those who attack vaccines over rare adverse events (observed in consenting populations) and defend SpaceX after spaceship explosions put populations at risk (without consent): science, whether in medicine or aerospace, relies on observation & iteration to improve safety. We need science!

Vashon island struggling to roll out of bed this morning.

Ok scientists & those who love science 🧪: here is another exhortation. Call Congress TODAY about the freeze on NIH Council Meetings and Study Sections. Emphasize that this means NO new grants are being funded & labs will soon start to shut down and fire employees. Phone numbers are at: 5calls.org

5 Calls

Spend 5 minutes. Make 5 calls. Make your voice heard.

5calls.org

🚨 WANT TO HELP US STAND UP FOR SCIENCE? 🚨 Here's a little update on where we're currently at with the planning process! Is your state red or grey & you want to see an event happen? Fill out our volunteer form or share with a friend! airtable.com/app4h5wUssMG... #standupforscience2025

Scientists, we need your stories! Post a 2-minute video on whatever social media apps you use. Show us your empty labs, tell us about the grant you are waiting for, and talk about why you do what you do. Tag @c4lifesciences.bsky.social and #Cuts2Science Tag your Members of Congress!

I've been seeing lots of super compelling videos of park rangers and federal lawyers and other federal workers telling their stories. Talking about what they did at their job, how it helped the American people, and why they want to keep doing those jobs. This is the way.

democrats-science.house.gov/sciencefirings 🧪

Were you fired by President Trump? | House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

democrats-science.house.gov

Today, along with 2,000 other NIH employees, I had to clear out my office 😭 It was truly the honor of my life to work with such incredibly passionate people focused on improving human health. I’ve never experienced a more positive culture where *everyone* cared about their job and serving others.