Rowan Walrath

Boston

Associate Editor at C&EN

Life sciences reporter @cenmag. Texan Bostonian. Vaxed & masked. she/her. [email protected]. Encrypted comms: Signal (DM for number) or [email protected]

Articles

US FDA approves Moderna's next-generation COVID-19 vaccine, with caveats

3 weeks ago | cen.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

The US Food and Drug Administration has greenlit a next-generation COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna that's engineered to be given in a smaller dose than the current one and targets certain portions of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. But only certain groups are approved to get the new vaccine. The FDA approved mRNA-1283, marketed under the name mNEXSPIKE, for all adults 65 and older and 12- to 64-year-olds with at least one condition that puts them at risk for severe outcomes of COVID-19.
The US is ditching a one-size-fits-all approach to COVID-19 vaccines. Here's what new guidance means

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

US residents' ability to get COVID-19 vaccines this fall is about to change as US Food and Drug Administration leaders shift away from a one-size-fits-all approach, raising concerns among vaccine researchers. Under new guidance this week from the FDA's top brass, annual COVID-19 boosters will be authorized only for people 65 years old and older, as well as people with certain health risks, including asthma and diabetes (N. Engl. J. Med. 2025, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsb2506929).
Federal policy changes spell turmoil for biopharma

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

Since President Donald J. Trump took office a second time on Jan. 20, leaders across the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry have by and large tried to play it safe with the new administration. There's plenty at stake: drug-pricing policy, manufacturing, tariffs and other trade agreements, and how the US Food and Drug Administration is likely to approach new drug approvals, among other things.
Lilly-partnered start-up raises $65 million for RNA-targeting drugs

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

A start-up targeting regulatory RNA is one step closer to getting a drug candidate into human trials with the help of $65 million in series A financing. Haya Therapeutics announced the new fundraising round on Thursday. CEO Samir Ounzain says he and his team will use the money to advance their lead candidate, called HTX-001, into clinical studies. HTX-001 is an antisense oligonucleotide that targets a long noncoding RNA, or lncRNA, that regulates fibroblast activity in the heart.
FDA's shift from animal testing opens doors for organoid makers

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

The last few weeks have been busy for Jim Corbett. Corbett, the CEO of organ-chip developer Emulate, has been fielding requests from potential clients, as well as from early investors who say they want to put more money into the start-up. The impetus: an announcement from the US Food and Drug Administration in early April indicating that the agency plans to phase out animal tests -a longtime cornerstone of preclinical drug testing-in favor of other technologies.
FDA’s shift from animal testing opens doors for organoid makers

1 month ago | pubs.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

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Flagship Pioneering launches new start-up Etiome to suss out disease-state biomarkers

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

Flagship Pioneering has unveiled a new start-up that aims to find, then drug, targets that are specific to different states of diseases. The company, Etiome, will begin with metabolic, neurodegenerative, and inflammatory illnesses. The venture firm has backed Etiome with $50 million, enough to give the start-up about a year and a half of runway, says Etiome cofounder and president Scott Lipnick, who also serves as an origination partner in Flagship's Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative.
Chemistry majors, set to graduate in May, stress over their futures

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Laurel Oldach |Krystal Vasquez |Rowan Walrath

She was excited when the acceptance letter came in January, from a research university in a major East Coast city. "In my brain, I was like, 'Yeah, this is it,' " the student tells C&EN. But in February, when she put together all the offers she had, she began to feel nervous. The offer letter from the research university that was her first choice had promised a contract to follow, but it hadn't yet arrived.
As research funding dries up for US science, few alternatives appear

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

At UMass Chan Medical School, gene therapy researchers Terence R. Flotte and Robert H. Brown are trying to figure out how to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the fatal neurodegenerative condition better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. They've made some progress: antisense oligonucleotides were able to slow down disease progression in at least one patient, and other studies from their labs have helped pin down some genetic causes of the disease, which is still poorly understood.
NIH restores some long COVID grants

Mar 28, 2025 | cen.acs.org | Rowan Walrath

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) appears to be reversing course on its decision to abruptly cancel a spate of grants for long COVID research earlier this week. On Friday, the NIH Office of Extramural Research notified an office at New York University (NYU) that funding awarded through the NIH's long COVID research program-Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery, or RECOVER-for pathobiology studies was restored, according to emails shared with C&EN.