Research
Smiths Detection -- a leader in threat detection and screening technologies for aviation, ports, and borders, urban security and defense -- has launched new algorithms that enhance its HI-SCAN 10080 XCT explosive-detection system (EDS) scanner’s detection capabilities.
Smiths iCMORE detection... Read More »
Expanding on an existing partnership, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Sonica Health announced last week that they will work together to create a wearable patch capable of monitoring for COVID-19 infections.
The device is meant for high-risk clinical... Read More »
The Homeland Security Committee has released a report assessing the government’s coronavirus oversight response, detailing the Committee’s actions amid the pandemic.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, recently released a majority staff report... Read More »
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) collaboration has resulted in automated mobile application (app) software testing procedures.
Officials said the partnership stems from efforts to ensure the... Read More »
Scientists did not anticipate the initial threat of SARS-CoV-2, but what if they could have.
In a commentary released this month by Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, society could be prepared for the next pandemic through a medical... Read More »
A new platform, SolaVAX, aims to help inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus -- the virus which causes COVID-19 -- in patients, and its progress will be a joint project of its creators at Colorado State University and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
SolaVAX was... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, signed an agreement with Stevanato Group to supply glass vials to hold vaccine for the COVID-19 virus once it is developed.
Stevanato, based in Italy, will supply 100 million Type 1 Borosilicate glass vials to hold up to 2 billion... Read More »
The Department of Defense (DoD) recently awarded a $59 million contract to Alion Science and Technology to implement weapons systems research and development.
The scope of work would aid the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC) Red Cell, information operations cell, and electromagnetic... Read More »
An existing partnership between vaccine company Sanofi Pasteur and clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company Translate Bio expanded this week to include development of mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases.
The companies originally began collaborating in 2018. Now, their union will focus on... Read More »
Clover Biopharmaceuticals began phase 1 clinical trials in Perth, Australia, on its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which is supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
CEPI has provided up to $3.5 million for Clover to support the preparation and initiation of a trial... Read More »
Both INOVIO’s CELLECTRA 3PSP smart device and CELLECTRA 2000 devices will benefit from a $71 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), in the hopes of scaling up DNA delivery devices for the company’s potential COVID-19 vaccine, INO-4800.
Both devices deliver INO-4800... Read More »
A public-private partnership between the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and MBio Diagnostics aims to create a COVID-19 serology test capable of providing results within five minutes.
The test is a point-of-care diagnostic that tests for human anti-SARS-CoV-2... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is seeking proposals from innovators on new technologies for first responders.
Industry, academia, laboratories, and others are invited to submit proposals related to four technology categories. One is Integrated... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) initiated a partnership with digital health developer Empatica last week that focuses on developing a wearable system and algorithm that can detect early signs of COVID-19 infection in individuals.
That system, known as Aura,... Read More »
Researchers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) have developed a way for people to decontaminate personal protective equipment (PPE) at home.
DHS’s S&T researchers have found that programmable multicookers can be used to decontaminate masks,... Read More »
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) officials said the agencies have partnered to expedite vial manufacturing capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through Operation Warp Speed, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under the... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) last week that called for efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to guarantee it has enough responders for emergencies and can evaluate training properly, a call echoed... Read More »
The lack of a cohesive national plan for dealing with COVID-19 was once more brought to the fore last week with the release of a report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which laid out a series of recommendations surrounding antibody studies.
These antibody studies --... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions revealed this week plans to expand its viral vector and gene therapy capabilities.
The company announced it will invest $75 million in its Canton, Mass., facility, which is focused on the contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) of drug substances for live viral... Read More »
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is providing a team of Toledo, Ohio-based Battelle researchers with funding earmarked for wastewater virus research.
“This should give us a reflection of what’s going on in specific neighborhoods,” Battelle Principal Research Scientist Rachel Spurbeck,... Read More »
A pair of automated antibody tests created by Ortho Clinical Diagnostics to track down COVID-19 will be further developed thanks to a new partnership between the company and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
The tests are known as VITROS Anti-SARS-COV-2 Total... Read More »
In exchange for rapidly testing drugs for potential repurposing as COVID-19 treatments, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers will receive up to $3.6 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) over the next year.
All of the drugs to be tested are... Read More »
Results from a University of Oxford study found that the low-cost, low-dose steroid dexamethasone was revealed this week to have reduced COVID-19 deaths by up to one third in patients hospitalized with the disease.
This is the first time a therapy has demonstrated any ability to improve survival... Read More »
Tamr Government Solutions, based in Cambridge, Mass., has received the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) inaugural Phase 5 award to develop an international traveler screening solution.
The $813,000 funding allotment via the Silicon Valley... Read More »
Raytheon Missiles & Defense personnel are espousing the benefits of the successful initial guided release of a StormBreaker smart weapon from an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
"StormBreaker is the only weapon that enables pilots to hit moving targets during bad weather or if dust and smoke are in the... Read More »
Pharmaceutical company SIGA Technologies, Inc. gained a boost to its work toward a label expansion for TPOXX, an antiviral drug for treating smallpox caused by variola virus, thanks to an increase in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) this week.
With the addition, DoD is now... Read More »
Biotechnology company Regeneron has begun clinical trials of its REGN-COV2 cocktail, a two-antibody therapeutic for COVID-19, with recent funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
The therapeutic proposes to inhibit SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes... Read More »
Showcasing how much more has been learned about COVID-19 since its discovery, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) added an online calculator last week that estimates the natural decay of SARS-CoV-2 in the air.
SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is... Read More »
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, introduced a new initiative to enhance global preparedness for future pandemics like COVID-19.
The Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC) seeks to establish a global network to help national... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working to develop new treatments to combat microbial infections.
Through its Harnessing Enzymatic Activity for Lifesaving Remedies (HEALR) program, DARPA seeks to use new tools and strategies to treat microbial infections. Specifically,... Read More »
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals initiated the first clinical trial of REGN-COV2, an antibody cocktail for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
The REGN-COV2 clinical program will consist of four separate study populations, including hospitalized COVID-19 patients, non-hospitalized symptomatic... Read More »
Testing of Moderna’s mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine candidate moved forward this week, with the announcement that arrangements are being made to study 30,000 subjects as part of a phase 3 study in July and manufacturing set to reach as high as 1 billion 100 microgram doses per year in... Read More »
Another SARS-CoV-2 laboratory diagnostic has caught the attention of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is teaming up with OraSure Technology, Inc. to get it United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).
This test,... Read More »
For three years, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has supported the development of Chembio Diagnostics’ DPP Zika IgM System diagnostic system, and now, the result has been approved for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The test detects... Read More »
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) inventors John Neilan and Michael Puckette have come up with a breakthrough to treat foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in livestock.
FMD is a disease that is extremely contagious and afflicts animals with cloven... Read More »
