Research
A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spent nearly $1 billion assessing whether other countries’ capacity to address infectious disease threats before the... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released new guidance this week to clarify how it will request and conduct remote interactive evaluations during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, noting how critical such evaluations will be to operations.
This was meant for any FDA-regulated facilities,... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will invest approximately $24 million into the first year of contracts for the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR) to aid a network of research sites investigating influenza.
These institutions cover... Read More »
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released the findings of its investigation on an incident that occurred in Saraqib, Syrian Arab Republic, on Feb. 4, 2018.
OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) is charged with identifying the perpetrators of the use... Read More »
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines recently spearheaded an effort in which Congress received a report assessing intelligence community threats.
The endeavor examined various threats against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, great power competition, and rapidly evolving... Read More »
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) has utilized the BioFlash Biological Identifier created by Smiths Detection to successfully identify airborne traces of SARS-CoV-2 inside its campus in real-time.
BioFlash is a device that collects and analyses air samples, rapidly sifting... Read More »
A phase two trial sponsored and funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has begun to investigate the safety and efficacy of IC14, a lab-created monoclonal antibody meant to treat the respiratory troubles of... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a recommendation to the Department of Homeland Security regarding its plan to improve border security, including the use of personnel, barriers, and technology.
The GAO indicated its assessment of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS)... Read More »
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) engineers are espousing the benefits of a low-cost computer system connecting older public safety radios with the latest wireless communications networks.
“This NIST project aims to develop a prototype infrastructure that could be used by... Read More »
Specialty vaccine company Valneva SE has concluded recruitment of 4,131 adults for a phase three trial of VLA1553, a single-shot chikungunya vaccine candidate.
If approved, VLA1553 would be the first chikungunya vaccine to gain Biologics License Application. This would, in turn, earn its... Read More »
A mix of casirivimab and imdevimab, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s REGEN-COV, is now strongly recommended by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for high risk COVID-19 patients that are non-hospitalized.
The drug was given a strong rate based on randomized trials, which involved more than... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced that it is expanding a pilot test of technology that improves the cybersecurity defenses for the country’s emergency communications infrastructure.
In a news release issued on Thursday, S&T said... Read More »
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials said a review of its March 2021 operational statistics showed a continued trend of increased encounters and arrests.
"We are committed to balancing the need to maintain border security, care for those in our custody and keep the American people and... Read More »
New research from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has found that the deactivating effects of heat and sunlight are consistent across different variants of the SARS-COV-2 virus – the virus that causes COVID-19.
In a report published in the... Read More »
Moderna, Inc. is trumpeting the interim results of a phase three trial of its COVID-19 vaccine, which have shown antibodies persisting for six months post-vaccination.
These results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, come with some caveats, though. While the results were founded... Read More »
An assessment by the COVID-19 subcommittee of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) has concluded that blood clots affiliated with the AstraZeneca vaccine are concerning but rare and require further study to determine a causal relationship.
All... Read More »
The specialty vaccine company Valneva SE has issued positive data for Part A of the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its inactivated, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate VLA2001.
Officials noted subject to regulatory approval, the company plans to initiate a Phase 3 clinical trial by the end of... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has earmarked funds to develop capabilities to monitor the current COVID-19 pandemic and other future biological events.
The agency has awarded $199,648 to Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based Mesur.io Inc. for... Read More »
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials recently outlined the latest breakthrough regarding its Machine-assisted Analytic Rapid-repository System (MARS) initiative, touting efforts to provide strategic advantages.
The MARS initiative would aid military planners, senior leaders, and... Read More »
A new COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) began a phase one clinical trial this week, following positive preclinical showings against SARS-CoV-2, its variants, and SARS-CoV-1, as well.
"Even before recent COVID-19 variants were identified, our team... Read More »
An ongoing Phase 2a trial of a Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been expanded to include adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17.
While there are still no approved COVID-19 vaccines for children, cases of COVID-19 in children have generally been less... Read More »
Although it already has a successful COVID-19 vaccine in circulation, Moderna is developing a vaccine designed to address the troubling South African variant of the disease (B.1.351), and as of last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began a phase one trial to evaluate it.
Known as... Read More »
Clinicians have created a portable test -- dubbed NIRVANA -- capable of detecting and sequencing COVID-19, its variants, and other viruses in mere moments, according to data published in the journal Med.
Primarily, the test cuts out the need for extra diagnostics and middlemen.
"This is a... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) announced this week that it will invest up to $200 million into promising vaccine candidates for SARS-CoV-2 and Betacoronavirus, following a call for proposals.
This funding will carry candidates through to clinical proof of concept and forms one... Read More »
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) officials said the agency has provided funding for studies evaluating the therapeutic potential of aCT1 eye drops in models of sulfur mustard corneal injury.
BARDA officials said the effort is via its Division of Research, Innovation... Read More »
Over the next year, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will lead a study of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness on health workers, thanks to a $4.9 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Participants in what is being called the PREVENT (Preventing... Read More »
Even as the United States reels from a year under the thumb of COVID-19, a new analysis from the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, released this week, warns that without action, the nation remains dangerously vulnerable to another pandemic or biological threat.
The report, Biodefense in... Read More »
Moderna, a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, announced Monday that it has shipped the 100 millionth dose of its COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. government.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 67 million doses of the... Read More »
Faced with an already mutating SARS-CoV-2 virus, the world has found itself needing to adapt its countermeasures -- and a team of scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has responded with a new test capable of detecting even mutated strains.
The VaNGuard test, as it is... Read More »
A total of five national laboratories are now a part of the Accelerating Therapeutics for Opportunities in Medicine (ATOM) consortium, assisting public-private efforts to develop an artificial intelligence(AI)-driven drug discovery platform.
The latest labs to join this week were the U.S.... Read More »
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) have offered thoughts regarding the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) update of its January 2016 report assessing firearms trafficking from the United States to Mexico.
Meeks and Durbin provided input regarding how the report... Read More »
According to a new study from the Galveston National Laboratory, published last week in Nature Communications, combining monoclonal antibodies and the antiviral remdesivir can make for a potent defense against the lethal Marburg virus (MARV).
Conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is reemphasizing the federal government needs to proceed with greater urgency to bolster cybersecurity initiatives across the board amid rapidly evolving threats.
Per the GAO, the government needs to take 10 actions to address four major challenges... Read More »
Moving quickly to tamp down concerns raised by the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) this week, AstraZeneca announced today that primary analysis of its AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine’s phase three trial confirmed 76 percent efficacy against symptomatic cases.
“The primary analysis... Read More »
Cipla Therapeutics, and SIGA Technologies, Inc, announced Tuesday that they would be entering into a strategic partnership to deliver innovation and access to novel antibacterial drugs, particularly to fight biothreats.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), anti-microbial resistance... Read More »
