Connect with us

Technology

Washington Research Foundation awards $10M to Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology to advance cell and genome technologies

Published

on

Five-year grant, one of the largest in the foundation’s history, will support groundbreaking work by UW Medicine’s Brotman Baty Institute and the Allen Institute

SEATTLE, March 6, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Washington Research Foundation (WRF) has pledged $10 million over five years in support of a new program led by UW Medicine’s Brotman Baty Institute (BBI) and the Allen Institute. The program, SeaBridge, will advance cell and genome reprogramming technologies developed at the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology (Seattle Hub) to help address a wide range of diseases. The grant is among the largest in WRF’s 44-year history.

“This is beyond exciting. Large-scale grant partnerships can really help to accelerate critical life science initiatives in our region. SeaBridge is a great example of this.” Dr. Tom Daniel, president and CEO of WRF

Seattle Hub is a collaboration among BBI, the Allen Institute, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Dr. Jay Shendure, BBI Scientific Director, leads Seattle Hub. He also holds faculty positions at the University of Washington School of Medicine and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Building on core technologies developed at BBI, Seattle Hub opened in January 2024 to generate foundational datasets, models and molecular infrastructure to re-engineer cells to record their own histories and reprogram disease states into healthy functions. The Allen Institute and the CZI each committed $35 million in 2023 to establish Seattle Hub.

The purpose of the SeaBridge grant is to train a new generation of scientists, leverage the region’s expertise in cell therapy, and launch startups to drive clinical applications that will improve health through advanced treatment options for diseases that include cancers, as well as neurological and immune disorders.

The SeaBridge program will recruit and train 40 postdoctoral fellows to further advance Seattle Hub’s technologies, which include the DNA Typewriter and ENGRAM created in Shendure’s UW Medicine lab. In addition to Shendure, the SeaBridge program will also be led by Seattle Hub Co-Director Dr. Marion Pepper, Chair of the UW Medicine Department of Immunology, and Dr. Jesse Gray, Seattle Hub Senior Director, Strategy and Platform, at the Allen Institute.

“This generous WRF grant enables Seattle Hub to establish a new postdoctoral fellowship training program, a program that will move Seattle forward as the epicenter of synthetic biology,” said Pepper.

The fellowship program will be administrated by BBI. Fellows will carry out their work at UW Medicine and other academic research institutions in the state. The hope is that researchers will advance several technologies to the point where new companies can be created locally to commercialize novel therapeutics, diagnostics or other cell-based technologies that address a variety of clinical conditions and diseases.

“Our vision is these new companies will bridge Seattle’s rich synthetic biology ecosystem and our enterprising fellows to create companies armed with new clinical interventions to improve patients’ lives,” said Gray.

Seattle Hub received a $105,000 planning grant from WRF last year to develop a detailed plan for the SeaBridge program.

WRF made the $10M award through its new BioInnovation Grant program, President and CEO Dr. Tom Daniel said, which the foundation launched in response to a key goal of its 2023 strategic plan: increasing support for big, emergent opportunities to advance Washington state’s life sciences ecosystem and improve lives.

“This is beyond exciting,” Daniel said. “Large-scale grant partnerships can really help to accelerate critical life science initiatives in our region. SeaBridge is a great example of this.”

Additional support for the SeaBridge program includes commitments from BBI, CZI, the Allen Institute, UW Medicine, and the fellows’ host institutions.

Dr. Meher Antia, Director of Grant Programs at WRF, said, “WRF is delighted to support the SeaBridge program through our first BioInnovation Grant. SeaBridge fulfils many of the goals of the BioInnovation Grant program in translating a novel and exciting platform technology into concrete applications in a way that builds on the region’s strengths. The matching funds from CZI, BBI, UW Medicine and the Allen Institute make this a genuine partnership between WRF, the research institutions and other funders, which is also a key feature of the BioInnovation Grants.”

About Washington Research Foundation:

Washington Research Foundation (WRF) supports research and scholarship in Washington state, with a focus on life sciences and enabling technologies.

WRF was founded in 1981 to assist universities and other nonprofit research institutions in Washington with the commercialization and licensing of their technologies. WRF is one of the foremost technology transfer and grant-making organizations in the nation, having earned more than $445 million in licensing revenue for the University of Washington and providing over $170 million in grants to the state’s research institutions to date.

WRF Capital, the investment vehicle for Washington Research Foundation, has backed 132 local startups since 1996. Returns support the foundation’s investment and grantmaking programs.

For additional information, please visit wrfseattle.org.

About the Brotman Baty Institute:

The Brotman Baty Institute leverages of Seattle’s culture of collaboration in genomics, bioinformatics, and data science through private and public funding. It builds on its successes in long-read and RNA sequencing, single cell profiling, and genomic variation analyses, among other areas of research with potential clinical applications.

Since it was established in 2017 with philanthropic support from Jeff and Susan Brotman and Dan and Pam Baty, BBI has been recognized for its work at the intersection of technology and health in the Puget Sound region and beyond. Its scientists and researchers at UW Medicine, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and Seattle Children’s have broken barriers across organizational lines.

Learn more at Brotmanbaty.org

Media Contact

Dale Wadman, Washington Research Foundation, (206) 336-5600, dale@wrfseattle.orghttps://www.wrfseattle.org/ 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prweb.com/releases/washington-research-foundation-awards-10m-to-seattle-hub-for-synthetic-biology-to-advance-cell-and-genome-technologies-302394317.html

SOURCE Washington Research Foundation

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Truemed and Highmark Benefits Administration Partner to Expand Access to Root‑Cause Healthcare and Enable Employers to Reach Benefits Goals

Published

on

By

AUSTIN, Texas, May 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Truemed, the leading platform enabling qualified health purchases with HSA and FSA dollars, today announced a strategic partnership with Highmark Benefits Administration, a trusted provider of comprehensive, compliance‑driven solutions committed to providing A+ benefits administration services to clients nationwide.

The partnership aligns two organizations focused on delivering innovative, cost-effective solutions that help clients achieve business goals while empowering employees to use their benefits confidently and proactively. By integrating Truemed’s medically-necessary qualification process with Highmark’s service‑driven administrative infrastructure, employers can offer a broader range of eligible health interventions while maintaining clarity, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Through this collaboration, eligible Highmark participants can use pre‑tax HSA and FSA funds on evidence‑based, root‑cause health solutions— including fitness and movement programs, nutrition and supplement options, stress‑management tools, and other medically‑necessary interventions designed to help employees proactively improve their health.

“At Highmark Benefits Administration, we understand that managing employee benefits and plan compliance can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be,” said Dan Bearden, Founder and Director of Highmark. “Partnering with Truemed expands what’s possible with HSA and FSA dollars while maintaining the clarity and compliance confidence our clients rely on. We’re excited to help participants access more meaningful health solutions.”

“Highmark has built a reputation for exceptional service and operational excellence,” said Justin Mares, CEO of Truemed. “This partnership builds on that foundation by giving eligible participants access to root‑cause health interventions that have been shown to improve health outcomes and chronic condition management. Together, we’re helping employers offer benefits that are simple, compliant, and truly impactful.”

Learn more at: truemed.com/a/highmark

Truemed is for qualified customers. See terms at truemed.com/disclosures.

About Truemed

Truemed partners with consumer health brands and benefits administrators to enable HSA and FSA payments for root‑cause healthcare expenses. Through licensed practitioner review and IRS‑aligned documentation, Truemed helps qualified individuals invest in medically necessary products and services using pre‑tax dollars. Learn more at truemed.com.

About Highmark Benefits Administration

Highmark Benefits Administration provides comprehensive, cost‑effective benefits administration services designed to simplify complexity and support employer goals. With expertise in enrollment and eligibility management, COBRA administration, FSA/HSA/HRA programs, compliance reporting, carrier billing, and employee communication, Highmark delivers exceptional service backed by modern technology solutions. Learn more at highmarkbenadmin.com.

Media Contact:
Tom Dahl
tom@truemed.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/truemed-and-highmark-benefits-administration-partner-to-expand-access-to-rootcause-healthcare-and-enable-employers-to-reach-benefits-goals-302760163.html

SOURCE Truemed

Continue Reading

Technology

DistrictWON’s uReport Partners with KOIN to Usher Back Local Sports Coverage to Every Community

Published

on

By

PORTLAND, Ore., May 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — KOIN 6 is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with uReport, bringing comprehensive, community-driven sports coverage to every high school across the entire metro Portland and southwestern Washington markets.

Through this initiative, KOIN is offering uReport, a human-powered, AI-assisted platform widely endorsed across high schools and colleges nationwide, fully-funded to all high schools in the region. uReport is ISTE EdTech Index Approved and listed in the ISTE Learning Technology Directory, a vetted resource used by educators to identify high-quality digital learning tools.

This partnership empowers schools, students, and communities to create and share stories, highlights, and updates across all sports, while amplifying that content across KOIN.com. uReport is already endorsed by leading organizations including the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, College Sports Communicators and other groups representing over 17,000 high schools and colleges.

“Local sports coverage has historically reached the biggest schools and the biggest games. uReport flips that. Every school in our market — from the 6A powerhouse to the 1A program with 80 kids — now has a dedicated platform on KOIN.com,” said Tom Keeler, Vice President & General Manager of KOIN.

Key benefits for each school & community include:

A dedicated content platform for every school.The ability to cover every game, every sport at every level and include unlimited pictures and videos.Every school will also be featured on KOIN.com, allowing all schools to consistently make the news!Schools also distribute content onto their own social channels, creating an amazing content library Real-world training for student journalism and responsible use of AI in storytellingA free fan-powered mobile app for real-time contributions from the communityFull customer support for the platform, all year. 

Check out a quick explainer video here: KOIN – Supercharging Your Coverage

KOIN will host three short webinars for Portland market school administrators to learn more. Any administrator is encouraged to participate (administrator, teacher, coach or other, click below to attend):
Tuesday 5/5: 9am PT
Wednesday 5/6: 8am PT
Thursday 5/7: 12pm PT
Schools can self-start and sign-up right now to cover spring events and continue to have access for the entire 2026–27 academic year. Self-start sign-up is easy here: www.ureport.com/koin

For more information, contact uReport Director of Customer Success, Dan McGrath: 216-647-3857; dmcgrath@districtwon.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/districtwons-ureport-partners-with-koin-to-usher-back-local-sports-coverage-to-every-community-302760179.html

SOURCE DistrictWON

Continue Reading

Technology

Fuutura Outlines Architecture Built for the Cross-Border Stablecoin Corridors the IMF Now Tracks

Published

on

By

As the IMF’s April 2026 Global Financial Stability Report calls for enhanced regulatory oversight of cross-border stablecoin flows to emerging markets, Fuutura’s compliance-first architecture across identity, payments, and trading is built to support exactly this kind of regulatory oversight

PANAMA CITY, Panama, May 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fuutura, a blockchain infrastructure company building a compliance-first financial ecosystem for the global market, today set out its position on rising cross-border stablecoin flows to emerging markets, following the IMF’s call for enhanced regulatory oversight in its April 2026 Global Financial Stability Report.

 

 

The IMF’s findings reflect a structural shift in how money moves across emerging economies. Cross-border flows of the two largest dollar-pegged stablecoins, Tether and USD Coin, rose from approximately $12 billion in early 2020 to $316 billion by early 2025, outpacing flows of Bitcoin and Ethereum. A significant share of those flows has been directed toward emerging markets, with cumulative net inflows accelerating since late 2023. The IMF’s concern is that rapid stablecoin adoption in emerging markets, absent appropriate regulation and backstops, could lead to currency substitution, weaken the transmission of monetary policy, increase capital flow volatility, and create challenges for capital flow management measures.

The IMF report also acknowledges that stablecoins, with adequate regulation, could offer improved settlement efficiency, faster cross-border payments, increased competition in the payment space, and broader access to digital finance. The same flows that warrant enhanced oversight also reflect genuine demand for financial services that legacy infrastructure has consistently failed to deliver in emerging markets.

Fuutura is being built to make both possible at once. A compliance by design approach facilitates the very regulatory oversight the IMF is advocating. That same architecture allows the platform to serve users in markets unreached by legacy financial infrastructure. What that looks like in practice is best described by the people who have built it.

“The IMF’s findings lay bare something that anyone working in cross-border financial services across emerging markets has been seeing for years. The flows are real, the demand is structural, and the existing infrastructure has not been built to give regulators the kind of visibility they need to do their work properly. That is the gap our infrastructure is built to address, across cross-border payments, identity verification, and the trading layer that connects users to the global financial system. Compliance is not something we have layered on top of an existing platform. It is part of how the system functions at every level.”

Ellis McGrath, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Fuutura

The architectural choice that defines Fuutura is the integration of compliance at a foundational level. Most digital asset platforms operate perimeter compliance, with KYC and AML conducted at onboarding and transaction monitoring sitting on top of an existing technology stack. Fuutura’s design records verified KYC and AML attestations on-chain and ties them to the user’s wallet, so that every interaction with the platform is gated by the presence of that attestation at the smart contract level. This applies across the entire ecosystem. Whether a user is opening a wallet, executing a trade on the exchange, or moving funds across borders, the same compliance design governs every interaction. The result is infrastructure where compliance is enforceable on every transaction and auditable by regulators at the on-chain level.

“The platforms that earn regulators’ trust will be the ones that make their work easier. The IMF’s call for proportionate monitoring of stablecoin flows reflects a broader truth about the relationship between innovators and regulators in this industry. Architecture that is open to inspection by default. A company posture that welcomes the questions responsible oversight requires. We believe the future of digital finance depends on builders and regulators working together, and we have designed Fuutura to support that relationship across every product on the platform.”

Oliver Cook KC, Co-founder and Chief Legal Officer, Fuutura

Fuutura is building for a market where existing financial infrastructure has consistently failed to deliver. The cross-border stablecoin corridors identified by the IMF are one part of that market. The broader scope is the millions of people and businesses across emerging economies who require digital identity, secure custody, and access to global financial markets in a single connected environment. The company’s launch marks the beginning of a phased rollout, with further ecosystem development planned as the platform scales across the markets it was designed to serve.

About Fuutura

Fuutura is a blockchain infrastructure company building a compliance-first financial ecosystem facilitating participation in the global financial system from underserved markets with a focus on the Global-South. The platform combines digital identity verification, a wallet, and a trading exchange into one unified ecosystem, giving users access to crypto and tokenised real-world assets through a single environment. Fuutura is pursuing licensing in multiple jurisdictions. Built with KYC and AML integrated at an architectural level, Fuutura is designed to be open to regulatory oversight by design. Fuutura is building infrastructure to extend digital finance to markets that legacy banking has not reached.

Media Contact
Fuutura
pr@fuutura.com

Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Disclosures

Digital asset risk. Digital assets are high-risk and their value may fall as well as rise. Trading digital assets involves significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Forward-looking statements. This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Fuutura, its technology, products, business plans and future conduct, including statements relating to the phased rollout of the ecosystem, regulatory engagement and licensing outcomes, geographic expansion, and market ambitions. Forward-looking statements are identifiable by words such as “building,” “plans,” “intends,” “expects,” “designed to,” “anticipates” and similar expressions, as well as by statements regarding future outcomes, ambitions or strategic direction.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those expressed. These include, without limitation, changes in the regulatory environment across jurisdictions; the availability and timing of licensing or authorisation; developments in digital asset markets; technological and cybersecurity risks; operational risks; counterparty and third-party risks; the pace of product development; and other factors beyond Fuutura’s control.

No offer or advice. Nothing in this press release constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation to purchase, investment advice, or a recommendation in respect of any digital asset, crypto-asset, token, security, or financial product or instrument. Fuutura’s products and services may not be available in all jurisdictions and may be subject to regulatory restrictions. Access to Fuutura’s platform is restricted to residents of jurisdictions where its services are permitted.

No duty to update. Fuutura undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

This release is not for distribution in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, or in any other jurisdiction where such distribution would be unlawful.

Photo:  https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2970890/Fuutura.jpg
Logo:   https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2965342/5949163/Fuutura_Logo.jpg

 

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/fuutura-outlines-architecture-built-for-the-cross-border-stablecoin-corridors-the-imf-now-tracks-302760188.html

Continue Reading

Trending