Countermeasures
A new facility, or bank, opened that will deliver low enriched uranium (LEU) to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) facility in Kazakhstan.
“This is a historic achievement for the IAEA and the government of Kazakhstan, and I am grateful for the hard work and perseverance needed to... Read More »
Terrorist threats against the United States continue to grow and evolve, including the use of non-conventional weapons, begging the question of whether this country is well-equipped for such attacks.
The conclusion of experts who testified Thursday before the U.S. House Homeland Security... Read More »
The global nonprofit research and development organization Battelle won a two-year contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week, for research on vaccines for influenza strains.
Under the terms of the contract, Battelle will assist the CDC in expanding its vaccine... Read More »
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced this week that it has partnered with the City of Houston and the Houston Airport System (HAS) as a means of combating human trafficking.
The effort stems from the Blue Lightning Initiative (BLI) program, officials said, which is an extension of the... Read More »
Barbara Barrett has garnered Senate confirmation to become the nation’s 25th Secretary of the Air Force, with lawmakers voting 85-7 to approve the action.
“I can think of no position that offers more excitement, challenge and meaning than the secretary of the Air Force,” Barrett, replacing... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently awarded CrowdVision Ltd. $160,902 to develop an airport passenger counting and measuring system for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Funding is for phase one of the project.
The company, a... Read More »
A group of U.S. Senators recently urged the Department of Defense (DoD) to address the increasing suicide rate among members of the National Guard.
Recent reports show that the suicide mortality rate for the National Guard has been consistently higher than the rate among active duty and reserve... Read More »
The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) issued a call Tuesday for funding applications for platforms capable of developing any number of vaccines to respond to as-yet-unknown emerging infectious diseases and unknown pathogens.
Such pathogens, collectively labeled Disease X,... Read More »
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, praised Tuesday the awarding of $41 million for a new Munitions Disassembly Complex at Picatinny Arsenal in Wharton, N.J.
The... Read More »
Reps. Mike Levin (D-CA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) recently introduced a bill targeting $10 billion investment in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supporting antibiotic resistance and rare diseases research.
“The National Institutes of Health support critically important research... Read More »
A model created by the University College London could be used to predict the next Ebola outbreak by tracking how changes to ecosystems combined with human societies affect the disease’s spread.
The model takes into account factors such as human population, land use, and the impact of climate.... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) is calling upon President Donald Trump to remove nuclear weapons stored in Turkey.
Markey, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. stores roughly 50 B61 nuclear weapons at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. The airbase is located about 250 miles... Read More »
A team of scientists led by Dr. Florian Klein successfully showed how the human immune system responds to the Ebola vaccine currently being used to fight an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and create antibodies against the Ebola virus.
Involved in the study of the rVSV-ZEBOV... Read More »
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) maintains the Coast Guard’s recent decision to modify the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) contract with Panama City-based Eastern Shipbuilding provides certainty for Northwest Florida’s communities.
“Hurricane Michael had a devastating impact on our local economy,... Read More »
Oshkosh Defense recently unveiled the new Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle Command and Control (L-ATV C2) in addition to displaying a series of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV).
The display occurred during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) National Conference in... Read More »
Model-based predictions of mosquito species distribution need to be improved in many parts of the country, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found.
Researchers assessed and combined previously developed computational models to generate new predictions of where Aedes aegypti and... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has achieved a milestone, with more than 50 approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the past 12 years of health security solutions it helped develop.
The approvals and licensures are for products that... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed last week marketing of the OraQuick Ebola Rapid Antigen test began, marking the first time a rapid diagnostic test for Ebola was permitted in the United States.
OraSure Technologies, Inc will market OraQuick. The test detects Ebola virus... Read More »
Coppell, Texas-based QED Secure Solutions has secured $200,000 in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding to field test a secure trust anchor for the Internet of Things (IoT).
The funding allotment via DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is in conjunction with S&T’s Silicon... Read More »
Four U.S. senators recently sent a letter to the Federal Acquisition Security Council (FASC), urging for stronger coordination of supply-chain risk management across the federal government.
FASC was established to reduce federal supply-chain risks by creating a “combined information-sharing... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) made $14 billion in funding commitments for the Global Fund, which was established to fight HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria.
The funding commitment, announced at the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment Conference in Lyon, France, will be spread over three... Read More »
Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) researchers are espousing the benefits of the latest version of the Survival Health Awareness Responders Kit (SHARK), noting it provides critically needed preventative care.
The SHARK 2.0 was recently delivered to instructors at Joint Base San Antonio-Camp... Read More »
In an effort to enhance support for its development, the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) granted priority medicine (PRIME) designation in September to a new chikungunya virus vaccine candidate developed by Emergent BioSolutions Inc.
“Emergent is pleased to... Read More »
While the bacteria listeria and the associated infection known as listeriosis has been well known for decades, an international research team recently discovered the most virulent species to date, able to infect and kill humans and animals.
This discovery was isolated in China, by scientists... Read More »
KickView Corporation, based in Greenwood Village, Colo., has secured $147,413, from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate to aid customs processing speed and efficacy efforts.
The scope of work would involve the firm adapting kvSonata, its existing software... Read More »
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) is urging colleagues to take action regarding border security in the wake of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announcing nearly 1 million southwest border enforcement actions.
The ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rogers extended gratitude to CBP... Read More »
Shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine and Lockheed Martin recently held a ceremony in Marinette, Wis., to commemorate the start of construction for Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 27, the future USS Nantucket.
"LCS' built-in flexibility makes it unlike any other Navy ship in the water today," Joe... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is backing a new technology that will allow doctors to better understand injuries caused by inhaled chlorine gas.
The technology is referred to as lung-on-a-chip, developed by Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM). The... Read More »
In a survey published this week in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists concluded that the market has thus far failed to support new antibiotics for the increasing troubles of drug-resistant superbugs.
"New drugs against CRE... Read More »
Terrorist attacks have declined globally for the fourth consecutive year while in the United States they have reached their highest level since 1982, according to a report from the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).
The... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report on the opportunities and challenges related to hypersonic weapons.
Hypersonic weapons fly at least 3,800 miles per hour at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles and are highly maneuverable and may be able to change targets... Read More »
A group of Republican senators sent a letter to Microsoft President Brad Smith to address questions he raised about Chinese telecom company Huawei.
The letter was in response to comments Smith made recently in Bloomberg Businessweek on how the U.S. government should provide more evidence of... Read More »
Doha, Qatar, served as the site of a training initiative focusing on addressing risks arising from chemical accidents and the potential misuse of toxic chemicals in ports and maritime venues.
“We aim to raise global standards and set norms for the safety, security, and efficiency of ports and... Read More »
The New York State Department of Health declared last week the end of a nearly year-long measles outbreak within the state that had put the United States at risk of losing its measles elimination status.
In all, 1,249 cases of measles ravaged the United States over the year, according to the... Read More »
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) introduced last week legislation designed to prevent foreign intervention in domestic elections.
The bill would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit foreign nationals from paying for online advertisements created to attack or support federal... Read More »
