Research
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) released news from the South African Phase 3b Sisonke study of its COVID-19 booster vaccine, which demonstrated 85 percent effectiveness against COVID-19 induced hospitalization, even in a region dominated by the omicron variant.
The results were preliminary, conducted by... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched an initiative to address potential machine learning (ML) model attacks.
The Guaranteeing AI Robustness against Deception (GARD) program seeks to work ahead of safety challenges by developing a new generation of defenses against... Read More »
With a growing body of evidence that novel coronaviruses will continue to infect animals to afflict humans anew, top scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have called for collaboration in pursuit of a universal coronavirus vaccine.
Drs. Anthony Fauci, Jeffery Taubenberger, and... Read More »
With recommendations from an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) and positive antibody and safety showings from preliminary studies, Sanofi and GSK announced this week that their COVID-19 vaccine booster candidate will continue its Phase 3 trial.
So far, the DSMB has identified no... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), co-founders of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, said two of their bipartisan bills addressing Artificial Intelligence and the U.S. government have passed as part of the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.
The bills, the... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Screening at Speed Program announced Tuesday it had awarded more than $2.5 million to Vanderlande Industries to develop a passenger self-screening concept design and prototype to streamline TSA PreCheck... Read More »
The U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the recent launch of its Hack DHS bug bounty program represents an effort to identify potential agency cybersecurity vulnerabilities while increasing cybersecurity resilience.
“As the federal government’s cybersecurity quarterback, DHS... Read More »
With as many as 40 percent of medical device manufacturing facilities refusing to submit records when asked by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-IL) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have proposed a bill that would encourage compliance.
The requests were made between... Read More »
A new report released by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security this week determined that the failure to incorporate primary care providers into the frontline response to COVID-19 and the larger public health system could have improved care, testing, and vaccination acceptance.
In... Read More »
Pfizer and BioNTech officials recently provided an update regarding the Omicron variant, noting results of an initial laboratory study demonstrating serum antibodies via BNT162b2 neutralize the variant after three doses.
“Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against... Read More »
A new report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative has found that nations around the world remain “dangerously unprepared” to meet future epidemic and pandemic threats,
The report – the 2021 Global Health Security (GHS) Index -- measured the capacities of 195 countries to prepare for... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Tuesday that it has awarded $22 million to nearly 30 organizations across the globe to combat antimicrobial resistance (AR) and other healthcare threats.
The CDC also established two new networks – the Global Action in Healthcare... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has extended the deadline for DHS Cooling Solutions Challenge submissions to Feb. 24, 2022.
Through the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), DHS is encouraging domestic innovators to develop... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has released a new Master Question List (MQL) for Synthetic Opioids.
The MQL serves as a reference guide as a means of aiding emergency responders and the research community by providing critical and vetted... Read More »
With a new disease variant come further questions of vaccine viability and new tests, and this week, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced an expansion of a vaccine agreement with Gritstone bio Inc. to test its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine against the Omicron variant.... Read More »
For a world where masks are among the new norms, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has launched the second phase of a $500,000 contest to develop creative, comfortable, and effective new mask designs for the public.
For this competition, BARDA is working with the... Read More »
According to a report released Friday by the White House, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is leading the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to combat human trafficking.
DHS helped the White House develop a whole-of-government National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking,... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) reopened submissions for redeveloping therapeutics into medical countermeasures against chemical threats last week.
Of interest are therapeutics already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or those in... Read More »
Preliminary results from a Phase 2 mix and match trial of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 booster vaccine are in, and they determined that administered six months after a vaccination routine of BioNTech and Pfizer’s BNT162b2, both antibody and T-cell responses rise.
The independent study,... Read More »
As part of a trial co-funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. (MVC), researchers will mix and match COVID-19 boosters focusing on combinations of MVC’s vaccine candidate and others.
“As we strive to stay one step ahead of... Read More »
Last week, the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, approved an initial investment of $155.7 million to support the introduction, acquisition, and delivery of malaria vaccines throughout eligible nations in sub-Saharan Africa between 2022 and 2025.
The public-private health organization hopes... Read More »
A new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center makes recommendations on modernizing the U.S. public healthcare systems in light of the challenges the country has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, Public health Forward: Modernizing the U.S. Public Health System, outlines critical... Read More »
Results from non-human primate testing of a Soligenix, Inc.-developed Bivalent Thermostabilized Filovirus vaccine, released this week, suggested 100 percent protection provided against the Sudan ebolavirus among dosed non-human primates.
The single vial vaccine is meant to target both the... Read More »
A 13-10 vote by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee (AMDAC) set the stage for recommending Emergency Use Authorization of the Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics oral COVID-19 antiviral molnupiravir this week.
The narrow backing followed a... Read More »
Moving quickly to address concerns raised by the Omicron COVID-19 variant, following its discovery last week, INOVIO announced it will evaluate two of its COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidates against the variant and has begun pre-clinical development of another specifically tailored to it.
Omicron... Read More »
Results of a study on molnupiravir, an investigational oral antiviral developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for use against COVID-19, showed this week that the drug cuts the risk of hospitalization or death by approximately 3 percent.
The trial of 1,433 participants focused on those... Read More »
Moderna announced last week a strategy for addressing the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, including a new booster vaccine and studies of boosters that have already anticipated its mutations.
The rushed strategy announcement came in the wake of closing borders and the World Health... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) recently reached a joint licensing agreement with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) for a non-exclusive COVID-19 serological antibody test.
The CSIC-developed test, to be... Read More »
In facing down a future of potential biological dangers, a new report from authors at NTI | bio recommended concrete action at the national and international level, from new oversight agencies to process overhauls and funding, to improve prevention and response.
In “Strengthening Global... Read More »
A new report from the CommuniVax Coalition has found that while progress has been made regarding equity in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, more work is needed.
Led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Department of Anthropology at... Read More »
Building on the success of its COVID-10 vaccine testing network to date, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced this week that it will expand its centralized testing capabilities to the development of vaccines for other epidemic and pandemic diseases.
CEPI’s... Read More »
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) personnel said the agency has issued an Infrastructure Dependency Primer (IDP) to aid state, local, tribal, and territorial planners in gaining infrastructure dependency insight.
The IDP resource supplements CISA’s recently published... Read More »
A bicameral effort from United States Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) rebirthed the Flu Vaccine Act last week, which proposes a $1 billion investment into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research of a universal flu vaccine.
Such a vaccine would theoretically... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) committed another $36.9 million to expand a contract with Clover Biopharmaceuticals and support the development of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, SCB-2019, for use as a booster.
The new injection of funding increases CEPI’s investment... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has identified Anchorage, Alaska, as the sole candidate city to host the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies.
The DoD would continue to navigate the Department of the Air Force Strategic Basing process to evaluate facilities within Anchorage to... Read More »
