Research
Implementing autonomous-vehicle technology would make U.S. Army convoys safer by reducing the number of service members needed to operate the vehicles, according to a study by RAND Corp., a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges.
“With current technology,... Read More »
U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office awarded a contract to BAE Systems to develop technology to help detect weapons of mass destruction (WMD) activity.
The analytics technology will leverage multiple data sources and uses data fusion, adversary... Read More »
Over the course of a two-day forum this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) brought together leading health experts and major research funders to discuss COVID-19.
They addressed the novel coronavirus from all angles: assessing current knowledge, identifying gaps, and collaborating on the... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) intends to add a new layer to its relationship with Janssen Research & Development as part of efforts to contain COVID-19 -- the 2019 novel coronavirus -- through shared R&D costs on the company's investigational vaccine.
The Biomedical... Read More »
The FBI Internet Complaint Center’s (IC3) 2019 Internet Crime Report found that last year, internet-enabled crimes spawned the highest number of complaints and losses since May 2000.
In all, IC3 took in 467,361 complaints in 2019 and tracked more than $3.5 billion in losses among individuals... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services created the first Foundry for American Biotechnology to produce technological solutions to enhance medical care and respond to health security threats.
The Foundry will be located in Manchester, N.H., and managed by the Advanced Regenerative... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Oklahoma received a $730,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) last week, to aid their investigations of emerging diseases -- research made all the more timely by the emergence of the Chinese novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
The... Read More »
University of Cincinnati (UC) engineers have developed a portable lab that plugs into smartphones and can be used to diagnose health conditions and infectious diseases including HIV, Lyme disease, malaria, depression, anxiety and coronavirus.
The lab is the size of a credit card and connects... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently selected four new industry partners to participate in a new wildfire sensors workstream of the Smart Cities Internet of Things Innovation (SCITI) Labs.
SCITI Labs will work with the Federal Emergency... Read More »
The second wave of Americans arrived in California on Wednesday, traveling from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic. They will spend days on military bases in quarantine as public health officials determine if there are any cases of the virus and to treat those... Read More »
An existing relationship between the U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will be extended under a new arrangement to develop a treatment for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
"Emerging infectious diseases can present... Read More »
Pattern Bioscience was awarded $6.8 million in funding to develop a test to diagnose drug-resistant infections quickly.
The rapid identification and antimicrobial susceptibility test (ID/AST) will provide health professionals with information about which pathogen is causing the infection and... Read More »
Forty-eight members of Congress recently sent a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asking the agency to quickly distribute its rapid diagnostic test for coronavirus to state and local officials nationwide.
Currently, samples must be sent to the CDC in Atlanta for... Read More »
Research biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences announced last week that it has joined efforts to contain the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) through requested release of an experimental drug known as remdesivir.
Remdesivir is not yet licensed or approved anywhere in the world. However,... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is calling for actions to counter the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) this week, with a new vaccine-focused request for proposals, millions in funding additions, and new partnerships.
CEPI desires rapid development and... Read More »
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) has offered recommendations for the United States to prevent and respond to potential biological catastrophes, such as the novel coronavirus.
NTI officials say global biological catastrophes may not only impact millions of lives but could have a huge impact on... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and biopharmaceutical company CureVac AG announced that, as of last week, they are linked in the effort to accelerate development of vaccines against the novel coronavirus (nCoV-2019).
While the pair had already been partnering to create... Read More »
A collaboration between Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology Co. announced last week intends to take on the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus -- 2019-nCoV -- through advancement of the INO-4800 vaccine.
Inovio recently began developing INO-4800 through Phase 1... Read More »
DNA synthesis technologies— a cornerstone of life sciences research and biotechnology development—are becoming more advanced and commercially available. Although much of this technology is used for clinical diagnosis and treatment, its potential exploitation may lead to ominous biological... Read More »
Scientists from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research turned to an old plant virus -- the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) -- as the foundation for a new research effort: a second-generation malaria vaccine candidate.
Demonstrated in the Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences, the... Read More »
As the outbreak of novel coronavirus -- 2019-nCoV -- continues unabated, a meeting of top officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the People’s Republic of China this week aimed to lockdown next steps for a unified assault on the virus.
The biggest news to come out of the meeting... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Southampton in England have identified areas in China and around the world that are considered high-risk from the spread of the coronavirus.
The university’s WorldPop research team found that Bangkok, Thailand, is most at risk from a global spread of the... Read More »
Raytheon Company has secured a five-year, $197 million contract Air Force contract to aid the branch in modernizing its missile warning architecture.
The effort involves developing the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) Mission Data Processing Application Framework (MDPAF),... Read More »
Faced with a novel coronavirus -- 2019-nCoV -- that continues to spread worldwide, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced this week that it will commit $10 million toward containment in China and Africa.
The funds will be split down the middle: $5 million will go to response support in... Read More »
Global health security may need an overhaul.
That’s how Kathryn Bouskill, a social scientist at the RAND Corporation and associate director of the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security, sees the future of the discipline.
In her recently published paper ‘Global Health and Security:... Read More »
Two new reports reveal a weak pipeline for new antibiotics to combat drug-resistant infections.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says this is due to declining private investment and the lack of innovation in the development of new antibiotics.
“Never has the threat of antimicrobial... Read More »
Confirmed infections of the Wuhan coronavirus reached five people in the United States over the weekend, with already known cases in Washington state and Chicago being joined by new patients in California and Arizona.
In all cases, the patients recently returned to the United States from Wuhan,... Read More »
Eight in 10 voters say it is essential or very important for presidential candidates to have clear plans and policies concerning the threat of nuclear weapons, according to an analysis by Hart Research Associates.
The majority of voters said they would have a more favorable opinion of a... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed a second U.S. case of the Wuhan coronavirus on Friday, pointing to a patient in Chicago while revealing that 63 other possible cases are being tracked across 22 states.
Though Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center... Read More »
The National Institute of Justice awarded the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) about $1.5 million for two research projects examining violent extremists’ radicalization and mobilization.
The projects, which will build... Read More »
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) issued a warning this week on the discovery of the Wuhan coronavirus in the United States, stating strong prevention and control practices, safety equipment, and funding support are critical to moving forward.
The Wuhan coronavirus -- known to... Read More »
A pair of researchers at George Mason University -- associate professor Aarthi Narayanan and assistant professor Remi Veneziano -- have received funding from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) for work on a new vaccine design.
That design has the potential to... Read More »
Despite recent efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to initiate health screenings at several U.S. airports, the first case of a novel coronavirus has cropped up in Washington state.
The novel coronavirus has rapidly expanded its reach in recent weeks, following an... Read More »
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is recommending that seven Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition programs adhere to key reliability practices.
The GAO was asked to examine DOD weapon system reliability. The DOD invests billions of dollars each year in major defense acquisition... Read More »
Thanks to data unveiled through Freedom of Information Act requests, the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance launched the largest scale database of U.S. animal imports in history last week and, in the process, revealed that the nation imported more than 3.2 billion live animals over 15 years.
The data... Read More »
