Research
Looking for ways to diagnose and treat infectious diseases in regions with limits health care and laboratories can yield some interesting results, but researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are working on the development of a lab-on-a-smartphone to help expand the currently... Read More »
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security has been designated as a Collaborating Center for Global Health Security by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Collaborating Centers are institutions that are selected to carry out activities and... Read More »
Techulon Inc. was awarded $785,000 to develop an antimicrobial that would kill drug-resistant bacteria by targeting specific genes critical to the bacteria’s survival.
The funding was from Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) – a global non-profit... Read More »
A study conducted by Stanford University under contract with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been expanded to include new technologies capable of identifying viral reservoirs for both Ebola and Zika infections.
The study is part of a larger international effort to research how... Read More »
Researchers from Kansas State University say that a new risk assessment model for Ebola transmission accurately predicted the disease’s spread into the Republic of Uganda, opening the possibility of a better means of predicting disease spread.
"This is a very new type of model," Caterina... Read More »
More than 40 experts from nine Central African nations met in October at an event hosted by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to advance biosafety and biosecurity in the region.
The event, held in Libreville, Gabon, was the... Read More »
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) officials said an Austin, Texas-based start-up has secured funding designed to enhance security checkpoint operations.
S&T officials said the agency awarded $199,961.29 to Synthetik Applied Technologies to develop a... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Defense announced the U.S. military installations that will be used to test 5G technology.
The bases picked include Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington; Hill Air Force Base in Utah; Naval Base San Diego; and Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Ga.
The four bases... Read More »
Bat hunters in Nagaland, India, were found to have likely been exposed to filoviruses, according to a study from Duke-NUS Medical School researchers.
Filoviruses are part of a family that includes things like Ebola and Marburg viruses. This case continues to highlight the risks such viruses pose... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate recently developed a suite of models at its Chemical Security Analysis Center (CSAC) to help federal agencies analyze threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences of potential chemical attacks.
The Chemical Consequence and... Read More »
With the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded still ongoing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the nation has opened itself to a second, large-scale vaccine trial backed by a global consortium.
The new vaccine candidate was created by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and... Read More »
Research efforts led by the Universities of Washington and Stanford have demonstrated that efficient tracking of widespread tropical disease spread could benefit from satellite images and drone photos.
"This is a game-changer for developing-country public health agencies because it will make it... Read More »
A new vaccine candidate -- MV-LASV -- for Lassa fever has started clinical trials, according to Themis Bioscience and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
A Phase 1 trial is currently underway, with the vaccine administered to healthy volunteers. The vaccine used comes... Read More »
Legislation that would create a new Department of Defense Regional Center in the Arctic was introduced in the U.S. Senate this week.
The center, the Ted Stevens Arctic Center for Security Studies, would be named after the longtime Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. The Defense Department has five... Read More »
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) recently introduced a measure reauthorizing Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) funding, noting it advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies in early development stages.
The ARPA-E... Read More »
Under a $36.7 million contract awarded to them by the U.S. Navy, BAE Systems intends to create a dual band Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD) system that will act as a countermeasure against threats to aircraft.
These FOTDs are radio-frequency and are intended to supplement any aircraft: fighters,... Read More »
The Air Force has launched an initiative designed to streamline its cyber weapon systems tools.
Sixteenth Air Force personnel, also known as Air Forces Cyber, said the 12N12 project, which launched July 1, seeks to replace, reduce and consolidate the tools, systems and applications operators and... Read More »
Three agencies within the Department of Commerce have initiated a $1 million initiative they said is designed to accelerate disaster response and resilience technology.
The Economic Development Administration (EDA), in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)... Read More »
A set of three antibodies, recently identified by researchers sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), hold the promise of better treatments and vaccines for the flu.
In a paper published in Science last week, the researchers noted that the antibodies... Read More »
Scientists are rushing to find a vaccine for Lassa fever, and their efforts may have borne fruit in the form of a measles-platform based concoction that they now intend to put through human clinical trials by the end of the year.
Lassa, which infects up to 300,000 people per year and kills... Read More »
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory won the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s FluSight Challenge by providing the most accurate state, national, and regional flu forecasts in 2018.
The lab beat out 23 other teams with its probabilistic artificial intelligence computer... Read More »
Countries are not prepared for the possible international spread of new or emerging pathogens or for the deliberate or accidental release of dangerous agents, according to a new index that assesses the capabilities of 195 nations.
The Global Health Security Index is a joint project by the... Read More »
Under the terms of a seven-year contract with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), $60 million will be given to Dr. W. Henry Boom and a team of researchers from universities throughout the United States, in an effort to accelerate tuberculosis vaccine development.
The first year of the... Read More »
The Department of Defense (DoD) announced Wednesday that it will issue a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) in November targeting 5G technology large-scale experimentation and prototyping.
“History is replete with examples of the DoD partnering with the private sector to foster innovation and... Read More »
Antimicrobial resistant (AMR) microorganisms, also known as superbugs, increasingly threaten every person on Earth, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and national experts.
“Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most urgent health risks of our time and threatens to undo a... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) recently provided a three-year grant to Kansas State University (KSU) for the development of a tool used to assess infection risk and implementing prevention efforts.
Led by KSU professor Caterina Scoglio, PICTUREE: Predicting Insect Contact and Transmission... Read More »
The ministries of health in Belize, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic announced the development of a surveillance network to identify and track acute febrile illnesses (AFIs), now with the assistance of experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and academic... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories researchers have embarked upon a seven-year campaign focusing upon developing the science, technology, and architecture to aid autonomous satellite protection initiatives.
STARCS (Science and Technology Advancing Resilience for Contested Space) will fund dozens of... Read More »
Tests conducted by National Institutes of Health scientists showed that a single dose of a highly diluted VSV-Ebola virus (EBOV) vaccine is fully protective against the disease in infected monkeys.
The dose is approximately one-millionth of what is in the vaccine being used to help control the... Read More »
New cases in the ongoing Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Ebola outbreak slowed in the 21 days from Sept. 23 to Oct. 13, 2019, a World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Committee heard this week.
While the epidemic is primarily concentrated on the Mandima health zone in the DRC, new... Read More »
Ways to develop effective vaccines for Lyme disease and the need to stop the infection were published Thursday in an issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases. The paper is based on highlights from a conference of industry, government, and academia experts earlier this year.
Lyme disease is caused... Read More »
Mathematical modelling could make efforts to predict and control disease outbreaks much easier and more reliable, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo, University of Maryland, and Yale's School of Public Health.
"Mathematical models of disease spread... Read More »
Terrorist threats against the United States continue to grow and evolve, including the use of non-conventional weapons, begging the question of whether this country is well-equipped for such attacks.
The conclusion of experts who testified Thursday before the U.S. House Homeland Security... Read More »
The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) issued a call Tuesday for funding applications for platforms capable of developing any number of vaccines to respond to as-yet-unknown emerging infectious diseases and unknown pathogens.
Such pathogens, collectively labeled Disease X,... Read More »
Reps. Mike Levin (D-CA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) recently introduced a bill targeting $10 billion investment in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supporting antibiotic resistance and rare diseases research.
“The National Institutes of Health support critically important research... Read More »
