Private
The World Bank Group is investing $300 million to support the global response to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The investment follows a declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the current Ebola outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of... Read More »
Thanks to the efforts of data analyst and visualization technologist Ryan Chen, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a new model gives emergency responders a means of simulating and testing a situation no one ever wants to witness firsthand: the explosion of a radiological dispersal... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate announced Tuesday a $10.5 million funding opportunity for a new DHS Center of Excellence (COE).
COEs are led by U.S. universities that have multiple partners from other universities, commercial interests, DHS, and... Read More »
Navy officials announced this week that Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Technical Solutions division is one of six companies selected to work on a five-year contract to support C4ISR programs.
The agreement possesses a potential value of $2.45 billion with the scope of work including... Read More »
National security experts met last week for a three-day summit in New Orleans hosted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Chemical Sector Security Council to discuss chemical security.
It was the 12th iteration of the Chemical Sector Security Summit, which is... Read More »
Growing drug resistance has left a frontline malaria drug combination all but useless, according to recent randomized trials focused on Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Multidrug-resistant parasites are to blame, their rapidly evolving resistance to antimalarial drugs leading to significantly... Read More »
Two federal laboratories under the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently held the first phase of testing for handheld explosive trace detectors (ETDs).
The detectors are used to find trace explosives on individuals, hopefully preventing a dangerous... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Washington Redskins recently conducted a successful emergency response test at FedExField.
“Success on the football field requires not only having a solid game plan but practicing and... Read More »
SpectralMD, Inc. recently received a 2-year, $27.3 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office (DHHS) of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to create a burn imaging device that is portable and quick.
“We want to give medical providers... Read More »
After nearly a year of battling an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo without success, the World Health Organization (WHO) this week declared the situation a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The declaration means the outbreak now poses a considerable... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Colorado State University (CSU) have partnered to advance the development of a Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus vaccine.
The European Union’s (EU’s) Horizon 2020 program enabled CEPI to provide up to $9.5 million to the university... Read More »
With measles outbreaks growing globally by as much as 300 percent in the first three months of 2019 alone, public health experts are calling for action through strong political support and equally strong public health systems.
"In a globalized society in which we are all connected, a disease as... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Squad X Experimentation program has field tested technology that allows infantry squads to collaborate with artificial intelligence and autonomous systems to make decisions in complex, time-critical combat situations.
The test was... Read More »
The U.S. government is planning to invest additional funding in F-35 Lightning II fighter jets, President Donald Trump announced last week during a visit to Derco, a Milwaukee-based aircraft supplier.
"From here in Milwaukee, you are supporting magnificent aircraft, and soon you'll support the... Read More »
The Rhode Island Department of Health will receive $5.4 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The bulk of the funding, through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement, will be used to prepare for natural disasters and public health... Read More »
An effort similar to the Manhattan Project — in which American-led R&D produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II — is needed now in defense against the growing global threats posed by infectious diseases and bioterrorism, sources said Thursday during a Blue Ribbon Study Panel on... Read More »
Under a new partnering agreement between Wageningen Bioveterinary Research and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), up to $12.5 million will be put to manufacturing, research and a phase 1 study of a single-dose vaccine for the Rift Valley fever virus.
The vaccine is made... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security recently released its annual report on Mass Attacks in Public Spaces (MAPS).
Last year there were 27 targeted attacks in the United States in public spaces in which three or more persons were harmed. A total of 91 people were killed and 107 were... Read More »
With a focus on biological threats to the United States and a new, public-private effort to counter them, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense will host its first public meeting in New York City this week.
Their main topic of discussion will be ‘A Manhattan Project for Biodefense’ -- a... Read More »
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Safeguards Statement for 2018 recently determined that the amount of nuclear material subject to IAEA safeguards is continuing to rise.
“Since 2010, the amount of nuclear material under safeguards has increased by 24 percent,” Massimo Aparo,... Read More »
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $3.15 million grant to scientists at Portland State University (PSU) to fuel research into a pill-based cure for malaria.
The funding will go to advance the research toward clinical trials. The study is built on the back of a compound created... Read More »
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other global agencies, held a workshop last month addressing biosecurity and biosafety gaps.
More than 50 experts from the Southern African region met in... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is holding a competition where teams use robots to navigate and search dark, dangerous, and unpredictable underground tunnels.
The Virtual Tunnel Circuit competition features nine teams vying for prizes totaling $500,000. The competition... Read More »
Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) personnel recently joined a series of partners in addressing the increasing risks of a catastrophic biological event.
Citing such factors as rapid technological advances, an increasingly interconnected world with health security challenges, ongoing global... Read More »
In testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Dr. Helen Boucher -- treasurer for the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) -- called for action to circumvent the growth of antimicrobial resistance.
“While bacteria develop resistance in nature,... Read More »
Dr. Baozhang Wang -- an associate professor in Georgia State University’s Institute for Biomedical Sciences -- received $3.26 million in federal funding this week to help develop a universal flu vaccine over the next five years.
"A novel approach to fighting the flu is needed because there are... Read More »
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories recently discovered a vulnerability in a standard open-source software for genomic analysis DNA-based medical diagnostics.
Such a vulnerability leaves the software open to cyberattacks.
Researchers found a weak spot while studying the software’s... Read More »
The Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Association (DARPA) established a program to deliver powerful new defenses against public health and national security threats.
The program -- called the PReemptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements (PREPARE) –... Read More »
Scientists at UC Riverside are celebrating a discovery about 30 years in the making: a neurotoxin component of a bacteria with the potential to kill malaria-bearing Anopheles mosquitoes, without risk to humans.
The scientists said the neurotoxin poses no risk to any living thing beyond these... Read More »
A new study built on machine learning recently identified four bat species that have the potential to spread Nipah virus in India, which was hit by a virus outbreak in 2018.
The study, published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, claims that its findings could help guide surveillance and... Read More »
Dr. Asha George understands firsthand the threats biological agents can cause. George, who is executive director of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, served in Operation Desert Storm. She knows what it’s like to be standing on the battlefield wondering whether antimicrobial resistant... Read More »
The Marine Corps has awarded a $67 million contract modification to BAE Systems and Iveco Defence Vehicles to develop variants for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) Family of Vehicles program.
The effort would enhance battlefield situational awareness and firepower, with the contract calling... Read More »
Lockheed Martin has secured a two-year $561.8 million contract to produce Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles for the Army and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers.
“The new-build ATACMS rounds under this contract will include sensor technology that provides the recently qualified... Read More »
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently launched a large clinical trial to investigate the drug delamanid, understanding its safety and efficacy in regards to multidrug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB).
Throughout the study, MDR-TB will be compared to the older isoniazid in... Read More »
Engineering and integrations systems firm BAE Systems has secured a five-year, $90 million contract to modernize and maintain C5ISR systems embedded within vehicles, watercraft, and specialized communications platforms.
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity pact spans five years while... Read More »
