Hear It Again: This researcher is working on a fentanyl vaccine to curb overdoses and addiction
Washington, like the entire country, has been hit hard by fentanyl.
in 2025, King County has recorded more than 650 overdose deaths involving the synthetic opioid, which can be 50 times stronger than heroin.
650 is a devastating number but it’s actually down from a peak in 2023, when more than 1,000 people died from fentanyl-related overdoses in the county. The drop mirrors a downward trend that we’ve seen across the entire country…
But the crisis is still overwhelming many communities.
A biotech company called ARMR Sciences is hoping to solve at least one piece of this very complicated puzzle: Instead of reversing these overdoses, they want to stop them from happening in the first place... through a fentanyl vaccine.
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This segment first aired in December of 2025.
Also - We wanted to share a response we got from a listener about our update on Kratom.
In case you missed it, Kratom is a plant from Southeast Asia that can have psychoactive effects. You’ve probably seen the signs for it - they’re plastered on just about every smoke shop in the city.
We previously spoke with UW Medicine researcher Caleb Banta Green about what we know about kratom.
And we replayed a short bit of that conversation last week in an update…. Because Spokane and Spokane Valley recently banned the sale of the substance.
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We also asked you to give us your thoughts on Kratom and whether it should be a banned substance.
Erik from Bothell responded with a really interesting personal take on the substance, and its effects.
GUESTS:
- Dr. Colin Haile, a research associate professor at the University of Houston and he’s also one of the co-founders of ARMR Sciences.
- Erik from Bothell
RELATED LINKS:
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- A Fentanyl Vaccine Is About to Get Its First Major Test | WIRED
- Scientists Create a Vaccine Against Fentanyl
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Libby Denkmann
Host, Soundside
Libby Denkmann joined KUOW in December 2021 as the host of the midday show Soundside. She’s a native Pacific Northwesterner who grew up in Redmond, graduated from the University of Washington, and covered local news as a producer and reporter with KIRO Radio.
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Maleeha Syed
Producer, Soundside
Maleeha is a producer on Soundside, a show that helps listeners get to know the PNW and each other. Before KUOW, she worked at Cascade PBS, first as a communities reporter and then as a podcast producer on shows like Northwest Reports and Your Last Meal. Before moving to Seattle, she worked as a reporter at the Burlington Free Press in Vermont, but is originally from San Antonio.
More stories from Maleeha Syed »
