Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office recently launched a program that assists the Department of Defense with enhancing and sustaining military readiness both by changing how troops train, perform and recover.
The Measuring Biological Aptitude (MBA) program uses biomarkers related to peak performance in a specific role and then measures and reports on these biomarkers in real time. Data will allow individual soldiers to understand the biological processes that determine success.
“With existing technology scientists are able to read out genotype and measure and observe certain aspects of phenotype. Most of what happens in between is a black box,” Eric Van Gieson, MBA program manager, said. “DARPA believes that the information inside the box — these expression circuits — can be predictive of how an individual will respond to a given stimulus or scenario, and more importantly, we believe it will help inform the individual on how to improve their performance throughout their career.”
If the program is a success, military readiness can be improved in three ways: improving how the military evaluates recruits and develops candidates for specialized roles, individuals could proactively nurture traits, and missions commanders could employ real-time reporting of changes in service members’ biomarkers during military operations.