| | | | |  | | By Carmen Paun, Ruth Reader, Erin Schumaker and Daniel Payne | | | | | 
Scientists are researching potentially longer-lasting vaccines. | Ted Jackson/AP Photo | Developing a vaccine that provides long-lasting protection against disease is the aim of researchers at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. The team is working to develop vaccines using ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based technology that could provide longer immunity from infectious diseases compared with the mRNA shots used against Covid-19. The institute will receive up to $3.8 million to advance its work after winning a competition sponsored by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international foundation working to develop vaccines for pathogens that could cause global outbreaks. The project focuses on designing vaccine candidates using so-called circular RNA. The candidates will be evaluated in animal studies, initially targeting chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus. Chikungunya is rarely fatal but causes fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash. Severe symptoms are often debilitating and can persist for months or even years. Outbreaks of the disease have become more frequent in the past two decades, and the virus has been identified in more than 100 countries in the Americas, Asia and Europe. How it works: Circular RNA vaccine technology uses a closed-loop RNA, which the researchers think will prove more stable and durable than mRNA vaccines, which are linear. Because circular RNA doesn’t have ends that break down when they contact enzymes in the human body, it takes longer to degrade, said Dr. John Cooke, director of Houston Methodist’s Center for RNA Therapeutics, who leads the CEPI-backed project. That means the RNA can continue to express the protein that it encodes, making immunity to a virus last longer than mRNA vaccines and potentially require only one shot instead of multiple, he told Carmen. Even so: It could mean more severe side effects because reactions would last longer, he said. What’s next? Cooke hopes his team will have all the needed data to apply for approval of a Phase I clinical trial in 18 months.
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St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. | Shawn Zeller/POLITICO | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. New Yorkers are flocking to Central Park to mourn the death of Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who spent a year traversing the city’s skies and window ledges after he was illegally let loose from Central Park Zoo. Flaco died Friday night after apparently striking an Upper West Side building. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.
| | |  A case involving the University of Chicago offers a cautionary tale about health data partnerships. | Scott Olson/Getty Images | As hospitals embrace artificial intelligence, they’ll have to scrutinize the patient privacy protections in their licensing deals — or risk penalties from the Department of Health and Human Services. How’s that? In a recent article in JAMA, Sara Gerke, assistant professor of law at Penn State, and Mindy Nunez Duffourc of the Maastricht University Faculty of Law in the Netherlands, examine how the University of Chicago unwittingly violated federal health privacy laws. In 2019, the university’s health system agreed to give Google perpetual use of de-identified patient notes in exchange for a predictive AI model that could help reduce hospital readmissions. The agreement prohibited Google from re-identifying the records. The University of Chicago told patients it would preserve their privacy. But a patient later sued, alleging the university hospital hadn’t adequately de-identified the records. The plaintiff asserted that Google could easily figure out the patient involved using geolocation data. The federal district court in Illinois agreed, finding the hospital didn’t properly de-identify the data and that the deal between Google and the University of Chicago constituted a sale under federal health privacy rules. Such an action requires the health system to obtain consent from patients upfront. Even so: Ultimately, the judge dismissed the case, because she found the health system in violation of HIPAA, the federal health privacy law that's enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services, not the courts. Still, there’s an important lesson here for health systems, said Gerke. “You need to check whether you’re actually selling data,” she told Ruth.
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Despite efforts to stop fentanyl at the border, much gets through. | Drug Enforcement Administration via AP | Artificial intelligence could help law enforcement succeed where it has long failed: stopping illicit drugs at the border. A top Department of Homeland Security official told POLITICO’s Mohar Chatterjee he sees “incredible potential for AI” in fighting the flow of fentanyl into the country, where it’s driving record drug overdose deaths. How so? It could help Customs and Border Patrol officers decide which vehicles to inspect and alert them when scanners detect drugs the human eye can’t. “We’re able to use AI to understand patterns in vehicle-crossing history to help [officers] decide which vehicles to inspect,” Eric Hysen, the DHS’ chief AI officer, said. CBP typically inspects around 2 percent of passenger vehicles and about 17 percent of cargo vehicles crossing the border, according to the White House. The Biden administration has asked for supplemental funding from Congress to pay for more than 100 large-scale scanners at land points to increase those numbers to 40 percent of passenger vehicles and 70 percent of cargo vehicles by fiscal 2026. AI could also help with scanning, Hysen said. “We’re looking at machine-learning models that enable us to understand whether the scan is showing us something that our officers need to take a look at,” he said. Why it matters: Nearly 110,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Most deaths were caused by illicit fentanyl. Mexican cartels are a major source of the drug. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
