Research
A new partnership announced last week between Integrum Scientific and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will advance progress toward a Rift Valley fever (RVF) vaccine by developing an international antibody standard and validation of new assays.
From now until September... Read More »
BARDA’s Division of Research Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe) announced Thursday that it will partner with US Biologic Inc. to develop an oral vaccine for two strains of the influenza virus.
Part of BARDA DRIVe’s Beyond the Needle program, the partnership’s goal is to make vaccines and... Read More »
A Phase Three trial of Valneva SE’s chikungunya vaccine candidate, VLA1553, met with major success, according to topline results released last week that showed it induced protective neutralizing antibody titers in 98.5 percent of subjects after a single vaccination.
The trial involved 4,115... Read More »
Biotechnology company INOVIO dosed its first participant in a Phase 2 trial of a DNA vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
MERS, another coronavirus disease, is far deadlier than COVID-19, with a kill rate of approximately 34 percent. Fortunately, though, its transmission rate has... Read More »
A cocktail of casirivimab and imdevimab known as REGEN-COV, produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., cut the risk of symptomatic infections by 81 percent in a Phase 3 trial of more than 1,500 people, according to a new publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Even better,... Read More »
A new report released this week by United States Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Gary Peters (D-MI) revealed glaring cybersecurity failures at eight federal agencies over the past decade, along with the inability of seven of them to comply with basic cybersecurity requirements.
The Federal... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) released its Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML) Strategic Plan on Friday.
The proposed plan will incorporate the technological advancements in AI/ML to enhance the efficiency and... Read More »
Faced with a disease that tends to hit suddenly, erratically, and with extremely lethal effects, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced last week that it will provide up to $188,000 to support Universiti Malaya (UM) research into the Nipah virus.
UM, based in... Read More »
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the founding of Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), a global non-profit partnership dedicated to funding and supporting the development of new products to counter antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
According to... Read More »
State funding for public health departments has dropped by 16 percent since 2010, and these same departments have lost a quarter of their workforce in the last decade.
How can the United States adequately prepare for the next pandemic when the public health infrastructure is woefully... Read More »
In a first for virus detection, the company Opteev this week launched a plug-in airborne virus detector known as ViraWarn to scan for COVID-19, flu, and other virus particles in the air indoors and then warn those who might be affected.
Meant as prevention rather than confirmation of infection,... Read More »
What is already the largest ever Lassa fever assessment study will expand to reach Benin, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, thanks to an additional $10.3 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI).
“There have been a number of positive developments in the Lassa... Read More »
A new, Battelle-developed system known as TechAware Search Continuous Automated Scanning for Technology Transformation (CASTT) proposes to help identify epidemic threats through a mix of text data analysis, behavioral change prediction, and creation of a graph neural network.
The project is... Read More »
With the COVID-19 pandemic entering a new phase, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) continues to emphasize testing in addition to the growing number of vaccines, and as such, has entered a new agreement with Cepheid, Inc. to develop two additional... Read More »
For the launch of the third series of the Virtual Whole-of-Government Research and Development (R&D) Showcase this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is looking to address upcoming scientific fields changing the world and how it handles... Read More »
Recognizing that many data sets are needed to tell the full story of the COVID-19 pandemic and understand if herd immunity can be achieved, two scientists from the University of Washington have created a statistical model of key COVID-19 data to model the disease’s true prevalence in the United... Read More »
A single dose of Vaxzevria was shown to be 82 percent effective against cases of severe disease, hospitalization, or death caused by Beta/Gamma variant of SARS-CoV-2, according to pre-print data from the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN).
Vaxzevria is another two-dose vaccine.... Read More »
The Defense Critical Supply Chain Task Force recently released final report findings and recommendations regarding threats and vulnerabilities.
“Throughout the pandemic, U.S. adversaries like China weaponized supply chain vulnerabilities in a way that threatened Americans’ health and... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently awarded $2 million to two small businesses to develop advanced, affordable, and handheld detection imaging technology to screen passengers.
Those chosen included Spectral Labs Inc., of San Diego, Calif., and TeraMetrix LLC, of Ann Arbor,... Read More »
Continuing to flesh out medical countermeasure options for the ongoing threat of COVID-19, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced this week that it will provide $13.1 million to Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology Co., Ltd. for clinical trials and scale-up support of vaccine... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently issued a request for information (RFI) regarding commercial Blast Resistant Trash Receptacles (BRTRs).
“Trash receptacles appear in most public spaces as essential but ordinary objects,” National... Read More »
All 625 slots of a randomized Phase 2 trial of the joint-Valneva SE and Pfizer Inc. Lyme disease vaccine candidate VLA15-221 have been filled with participants, finishing the recruitment phase of the trial.
The trial is focused on participants between 5 to 65 years old. They will receive doses... Read More »
A phase 2/3 study that put oral opaganib to 475 patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 affiliated pneumonia concluded this week, and its creator, RedHill Biopharma Ltd., said that top-line results are expected to follow in a matter of weeks.
"Emerging data is showing that variants are... Read More »
Partners in COVAX, a global collaborative effort to accelerate development, manufacturing and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, launched the COVAX Marketplace last week to match buyers with suppliers through a secure new platform and overcome short-term bottlenecks.
The Marketplace is a... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced this week that it has partnered with several entities to evaluate the use of autonomous surface and underwater ocean surveillance technology.
The agency has teamed up with the University of Southern... Read More »
A total of $153 million was split between two projects under the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIMBL) this week, as awarded by the United States Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
“I am so pleased that... Read More »
Noting that with advances in biological sciences comes the potential for abuse, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security applauded the InterAcademy Partnership this week for endorsing new Guidelines for Codes of Conduct for Scientists produced by Tianjin Biosecurity.
These guidelines,... Read More »
Northrop Grumman Corporation announced Tuesday that its Hypersonics Center of Excellence is currently under construction and once completed, would support the nation's military and allies in combating threats.
The 60,000-square-foot site in Elkton, Md., would offer production for hypersonic... Read More »
The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense urged Congress to take action to protect the country’s critical infrastructure from biological threats on Wednesday.
In two recent reports, The Apollo Program for Biodefense: Winning the Race Against Biological Threats, and Biodefense in Crisis:... Read More »
The first healthy adult participants of the Phase 1/2 randomized and observer-blinded test of Moderna’s new quadrivalent seasonal flu vaccine were dosed last week, officially beginning a trial much desired by global health experts.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has a list of targets for... Read More »
Questions were spurred last week with news from Pfizer and BioNTech that progress was being made on a COVID-19 vaccine booster the companies indicated would likely be needed in the future -- a stance promptly contradicted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease... Read More »
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) officials have assessed the 2020 Privacy Technology Demonstration results.
The endeavor sought to advance efforts to protect the privacy of individuals appearing in photos and videos. Five privacy systems... Read More »
While the efficacy of many COVID-19 vaccines has largely been established, more specific questions remain, such as their effectiveness on the immunosuppressed and transplant patients -- a fact that has prompted a new study, led by the Oslo University Hospital and funded by a series of national and... Read More »
A recent study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health suggests that one in every four COVID-19 deaths in the United States may be attributed to hospitals strained by surging caseloads.
Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the study looked at data from 150,000 COVID-19... Read More »
Is the United States prepared for the next pandemic?
That question has forced experts to either rethink preparedness strategies or find ways to bolster existing policy in the era of COVID-19.
For the researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, this has meant identifying 13... Read More »
