Research
In an effort to create smarter research and development efforts in limited markets, the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) science division has launched the online Health Produce Profile Directory.
The focus is on neglected diseases and global health threats like antimicrobial resistance.... Read More »
Board members of America’s first responder network, FirstNet, recently toured the Georgia Cyber Center, learning more about evolving cyber threats and the technological investments and innovation being developed there.
Board Chair Edward Horowitz, fellow board member and retired Army Brigadier... Read More »
A new study led by Georgia State University states that the timing of hurricanes is a primary force in the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
Such infectious diseases, like West Nile Virus or Zika, bloom with an increased mosquito population. Stagnant water helps drive those populations upward... Read More »
The TB Alliance was awarded a grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) last week to aid in the development of two new clinical stage tuberculosis drug candidates.
Development is being undertaken by partners at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Harvard... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico recently signed an umbrella agreement to explore multiple research and technology collaborations among scientists, faculty, and students.
Under the agreement, the organizations will collaborate in areas, including advance materials... Read More »
In a 14-year study focused on outbreak investigations in Bangladesh, an international team of scientists has gained new insights into the deadly Nipah virus -- in particular, that age and respiratory troubles are substantial factors in its transmission.
The bat-borne paramyxovirus is a staple... Read More »
It’s not far-fetched to think that Ebola could be used as an agent of bioterrorism, according to researchers working on vaccines and treatments for the virus.
In theory, a terrorist could mass disseminate the hemorrhagic virus by small particle aerosol. It is a possible but unlikely scenario... Read More »
With an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ongoing, in part due to ongoing incidents of violence hindering the ability to respond effectively, the World Health Organization (WHO) has revised its vaccination strategy and issued new recommendations for the best path... Read More »
In a first federal collaborative report between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of the Interior (DOI) and Department of Agriculture (USDA), a federal list now tracks the most concerning illnesses spread between animals and people in the United States.
These... Read More »
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) officials are touting the benefits of ReVector, a new program from the agency's Biological Technologies Office, in combating mosquito disease transmission.
ReVector seeks to actively repel mosquitoes by engineering the skin microbiome to alter... Read More »
Ke Du, a professor and researcher from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), created a microfluidic device based on CRISPR gene-editing technology to detect and monitor indicators of Ebola.
The small, automated device tracks nucleic acid markers indicative of the virus. Once approached... Read More »
Climate change could affect the spread of animal to human diseases more than previously thought, according to a recent study from researchers at the University of Queensland and Swansea University.
Their research, published in Trends in Parasitology, found a link between environmental factors... Read More »
A new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) technology designed to increase situational awareness is garnering security industry plaudits.
S&T’s Immersive Imaging System recently received the R&D 100 Award, presented at the annual R&D 100 Conference,... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is testing new chemical sensors that are pushing the ability to detect chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threats to potentially region-scale efforts.
The effort is coming of age under the SIGMA+ initiative, which is a... Read More »
A joint research project between American and Japanese interests has yielded a new technology that could ease development of H3N2 flu vaccines, by attacking one of their most common causes of concern: mutation during the development process.
Such mutations cause mismatches between the seasonal... Read More »
A landmark study maintains while 2016 global malaria spending totaled $4.3 billion, it fell short of the World Health Organization's target goal of $6.6 billion.
The University of Washington School of Medicine Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) analysis, published in The Lancet... Read More »
Mount Sinai researchers have found detected sizeable delays in the reporting of cases of West Nile virus in the United States, which could actively harm efforts to track and predict the disease.
Their findings, published in the JAMA Network Open, uncovered reporting delays of anywhere between... Read More »
The anti-malaria drug primaquine is the focus of an upcoming, mass treatment routine in Thailand and Myanmar in an effort to prevent relapses of the disease.
A grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) makes that possible. Researchers from the University of South Florida will receive... Read More »
U.S. senators from Mississippi praised the announcement on Tuesday that Pascagoula, Miss.-based shipbuilder VT Halter Marine Inc. was awarded a major contract to build the next generation of U.S. Coast Guard polar icebreakers.
A United States presence in the polar regions is vital given the... Read More »
Raytheon, as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Friend or Foe program, is developing a portable biosurveillance device capable of evaluating bacteria and whether or not they could be harmful to people.
It is an area the company has identified as currently underdeveloped.... Read More »
Malawi recently launched the world’s first malaria vaccine in a pivotal pilot program.
The country is the first of three African nations in which the vaccine will be made available to children up to two years old. Ghana and Kenya will introduce the vaccine in the coming weeks.
The vaccine,... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently launched a research and development project for a Secure and Resilient Mobile Network Infrastructure (SRMNI).
DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) are seeking innovative... Read More »
As the U.S. government seeks to build its National Biodefense Strategy, more than 200 heavy hitters from federal, state and local agencies, national stakeholder organizations, academia and the private sector informed its future implementation during the April 17 Biodefense Summit held in... Read More »
The Department of Defense's Defense Logistics Agency has awarded a contract to Citadel Defense Company to counter drones increasingly threatening to U.S. forces around the world.
The over $1 million contract is supportive of USSOCOM requirements and represents the company's sixth government... Read More »
The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) published two reports this week focused on federal, state, local and tribal police officers’ mental health and safety.
The Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act: Report to Congress includes 22... Read More »
A new study published in eLife concludes that the path to fighting malaria at a community level could be through widespread deployment of antimalarial drugs.
Importantly, researchers theorize this would not only protect those who take the drugs but even those untreated, as the drugs would help... Read More »
EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on global animal, environmental and human health, has generated a report maintaining there are gaps in pandemics related events readiness.
The organization presented Building Resilience to Biothreats at an event earlier this month featuring... Read More »
Researchers from Florida International University's Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine have created a novel, broad-spectrum antibiotic containing arsenic to combat the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
"The antibiotic, arsinothricin or AST, is a natural product made by soil bacteria and... Read More »
Research members from the Jefferson Vaccine Center of the Philadelphia University and Thomas Jefferson University have created a new drug to combat Nipah virus, which currently has no approved vaccines.
Nipah is an RNA virus transmissible from animals such as bats and pigs to humans. It’s a... Read More »
The Biomedical
Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a component of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, will collaborate with Johnson
& Johnson Innovation and the Children’s National Health System to launch an
innovation zone.
The innovation zone will... Read More »
In 2012, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
completed its Kansas City facility and the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) found workload projections have increased significantly from earlier
forecasts.
The facility produces or procures more than 80 percent of... Read More »
A recent report from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) lays out present problems in global access to antibiotics.
The majority of the world’s annual 5.7 million antibiotic-treatable deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. The mortality burden from... Read More »
Scientists from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Saudi Arabia and Canada have created a vaccine to defend against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has caused hundreds of deaths since being identified in 2012.
For testing, two versions of the potential vaccine... Read More »
NARCAN Nasal Spray appears to be the best life-saving antidote that family members and other bystanders can administer to save a loved one from overdosing on opioids, a new study has found.
The study’s conclusions may bode well for potentially decreasing drug overdose fatalities in the United... Read More »
Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) officials have awarded a pair of $50,000 grants to winners of the organization's Nuclear Security Index Challenge, which seeks to improve nuclear security conditions worldwide.
The first grant was awarded to Travis Carless (RAND Corporation), Kenneth Redus... Read More »
