Countermeasures
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) provided additional funding to Soligenix, Inc., this week to advance preclinical development of OrbeShield (oral beclomethasone 17,21-dipropionate or oral BDP) as... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) applauded President Barack Obama this week for signing Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 41, entitled “United States Cyber Incident Coordination.”
The directive complements the Cybersecurity National Action Plan, which was introduced earlier this year to build... Read More »
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) recently adopted a decision that calls for the necessary international assistance in response to a request from the Libyan Government of National Accord to destroy its remaining Category 2 chemical weapons on an expedited basis outside... Read More »
The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) will hold its inaugural forum in the Southwest border region in August to engage with federal and regional public safety stakeholders about the communications challenges they face ahead of the deployment of a nationwide public safety broadband... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY) on Tuesday decried actions by his congressional colleagues for jeopardizing the development of a vaccine for the Zika virus.
Donovan’s statement came in the wake of three different companies threatening to halt their developments due to funding uncertainty.... Read More »
The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) produced its first biosafety curriculum for police colleges to advance law enforcement capability and preparedness in responding to biological incidents on Tuesday.
The initiative was developed under Project Rhino and seeks to address... Read More »
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Dan Ragsdale and U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) unveiled a major renovation to the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Forensic Laboratory on Tuesday.
“The men and women who work at this... Read More »
The House Homeland Security Committee released its “Terror Gone Viral” report that shows that the wave of terror attacks in the past month have helped ISIS reach a record-level of plotting following the attacks in Germany, France and Orlando.
“ISIS terrorists have reached an alarming and... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy, chaired a hearing on the Securing Energy Infrastructure Act, S. 3018, and to examine protections designed to guard against energy disruptions last week.
“In the United States, we too often we... Read More »
The Alliance for Biosecurity applauded the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday for passing the Strengthening Public Health Emergency Response Act, H.R. 3299, which now heads to the House floor for a vote.
The bill was sponsored by U.S. Reps. Susan Brooks (R-IN) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA).... Read More »
Soligenix released positive preliminary proof-of-concept results on Monday from its collaboration with Axel Lehrer to develop a heat-stable subunit Ebola virus vaccine.
Lehrer is a doctor in the Department of Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology at the John A. Burns School of... Read More »
U.S. Reps. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) and Jim Langevin (D-RI) introduced two bills on Thursday aimed at strengthening collaborative cybersecurity research and development efforts with Israel.
The first bill, the United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2016, will create a... Read More »
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill on Thursday introduced by U.S. Reps. Susan Brooks (R-IN) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) aimed at incentivizing investments in vaccines and treatments for dangerous and deadly diseases identified as threats to our national security.
The Strengthening... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced legislation on Wednesday to assist communities in preparing for and responding to active shooter events.
The bill, the Active Shooter Preparedness Enhancement Act of 2016, would ensure that the Department of Homeland Security... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded the initial funding of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office’s (DNDO) Securing the Cities program to Chicago on Wednesday to build upon the agency’s increase in capabilities to detect and protect against radiological and nuclear threats.... Read More »
Researchers at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) and CBI Polymer recently explored how a HydroGel can be modified to decontaminate surfaces contaminated with harmful biological agents, such as the anthrax-inducing Bacillus anthracis.
HydroGel is a biosynthetic polymer that can be... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-ME) urged the Senate on Tuesday to move forward with his legislation that seeks to protect critical U.S.-based energy infrastructure from a potential catastrophic cyber-attack.
King urged his colleagues to take action on the Securing Energy Infrastructure Act of 2016 in... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began a series of actions this week designed to combat the emerging threat of Zika virus and to mitigate its spread throughout the U.S. and the world.
The FDA began with important steps to help protect the safety of the blood supply. One of the first... Read More »
The European Parliament has taken an important step toward protecting victims of potential biological, chemical and other types of terrorist attacks in the European Union with its new draft counterterrorism directive that is being negotiated this week.
The European Parliament’s Civil... Read More »
A team at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) has developed a means for Department of Defense (DoD) labs across the globe to quickly obtain a genomic analysis of unknown and potentially hazardous biological samples without incurring the cost and risk of shipping them to a robust... Read More »
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) announced its support on Thursday for a bill authored by U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-ME) that aims to control the spread of Zika virus.
The Strengthening Mosquito Abatement for Safety and Health (SMASH) Act aims strengthen the nation’s ability to... Read More »
The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) recently announced that is has developed a decontamination spray that enables soldiers at the unit level to decontaminate vehicle surfaces in the field immediately after exposure to a chemical warfare agent and continue with their mission.
The... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) on Friday met with federal and local partners to discuss security operations and procedures at the Philadelphia International Airport.
During his trip, Carper toured the airport’s checkpoint areas that screen approximately 31 million passengers per year.
In... Read More »
The European Commission launched a new public-private partnership on cybersecurity on Tuesday that is expected to trigger $1.9 billion of investment by 2020.
The partnership is part of a series of a new initiatives to better equip Europe against cyber attacks and to strengthen the... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) agents arrested two Pennsylvania men last week at Boston’s Logan International Airport on cocaine smuggling allegations.
The two men, Erick Dominguez-Santos and Ezra Mendez, were arrested after officers discovered more... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) provided BioCryst Pharmaceuticals with additional funding on Monday for efficacy studies of BCX4430 in non-human primates to further assist effective dose regimens.
BCX4430 is a broad-spectrum antiviral that is advancing toward... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) met with New Mexico National Guard officials in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Saturday to discuss increasing resources for counter drug efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Additional talks included efforts to enable the New Mexico National Guard to become the first... Read More »
An independent panel of public health, emergency response and communication experts issued a report on Friday on the Ebola epidemic of 2014, identifying recommendations to improve the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) response to urgent public health threats.
Concerns... Read More »
The Partnership for Research on Ebola virus in Liberia (PREVAIL) on Monday opened PREVAIL IV, a treatment trial for men who have survived Ebola virus disease (EVD) but continue to have evidence of Ebola virus genetic material - RNA - in their semen.
The trial is sponsored by the National... Read More »
The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) moved forward on Friday with its preparations for a public-private partnership to deploy and operate a nationwide public safety broadband network.
During their meeting in Chicago, the FirstNet board of directors provided strategic guidance for... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) allocated $275 million on Wednesday for six FY2016 DHS competitive preparedness and grant programs to support state, local, tribal and territorial partners.
The grant program funds come in addition to the more than $1.3 billion in non-competitive... Read More »
FLIR Systems acquired Armasight, Inc., a leading developer of precision sporting, hunting and military optics products, for approximately $41 million on Wednesday.
"The addition of Armasight to our existing scopes and sights business provides us with meaningful additional scale and injects... Read More »
A coalition of research institutions published a report in the Clinical Infectious Disease Journal on Wednesday that analyzed the immune responses of Ebola patients treated in the United States.
The coalition includes the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), the Emory University School... Read More »
With the goal of improving U.S. threat preparedness, U.S. Rep. Daniel Donovan (R-NY), who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, recently introduced legislation to help fight potential terror attacks in urban areas and in cyberspace.
Donovan recently introduced the Terrorist Asset... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Tuesday that found that the National Guard, part of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), has made progress incorporating the Homeland Response Force (HRF) into the chemical, biological radiological and nuclear (CBRN) response... Read More »
