Research
Advances in medicine have meant many lives saved over the years, but it also has led to weakened immune systems that would leave people vulnerable to the resurrection of an older, incredibly deadly disease: smallpox.
Professor Raina MacIntyre of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) is... Read More »
To improve outcomes for service members who suffer traumatic brain injuries, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has created a program that aims to slow down biochemical reactions inside cells to extend the length of time that life-saving treatment can be rendered.
DARPA’s... Read More »
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) recently published a study that found that the United States is unprepared for the surge in pediatric patients that an infectious disease pandemic could cause.
The paper, which was published in the American Journal of Disaster Medicine,... Read More »
A study from scientists at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin found that almost two-thirds of all molecular diagnostic tests for the Zika virus in Brazil showed false-positive or false-negative results.
Almost all cases of Zika-associated malformations in newborns have been reported from... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology (S&T) Directorate plans to hold a Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) Operational Experimentation (OpEX) in December to evaluate first responder technology solutions.
The DHS S&T Directorate issued a request for information (RFI)... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) laid out a point by point note of the necessities for a universal flu vaccine this week, publishing their strategy in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
For such a vaccine to be successful, the organization saw four main goals... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded a 12-month, $26 million contract to Emergent BioSolutions on Wednesday for the continued supply of Vaccinia Immune Globulin Intravenous (VIGIV) to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
Emergent BioSolutions developed VIGIV,... Read More »
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Amtrak are currently testing new technology that detects suicide vests and other improvised explosive devices (IED) concealed beneath travelers’ clothing at New York’s Pennsylvania Station.
The standoff explosive detection unit sounds an... Read More »
Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health recently developed an improved system for predicting the geographic spread of seasonal influenza in the United States.
According to a paper published in the journal PNAS, the forecasting system can accurately predict local... Read More »
Low flu shot counts this year in Europe have worried prompted worries among regional health experts and prompted a joint study from the Italian National Research Council and the European Commission Joint Research Centre that showcases the efficacy of vaccination efforts.
The focus of this study... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently announced that its Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) program has all performer institutions under contract and working to developing technology that can quickly prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
P3 was launched last year in... Read More »
More than 50 groups marshalled by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) seek an act of Congress to rush urgently needed new antimicrobial drugs to market that protect America’s national security and the health of its citizens against biothreats posed by antimicrobial resistant (AMR)... Read More »
A new saliva-based diagnostic test for Zika virus is being developed by researchers at New York University College of Dentistry, in collaboration with Rheonix, Inc., and allows test results to be delivered in minutes rather than hours or days.
Current Zika testing is conducted using blood... Read More »
Researchers at MIT have discovered the means of growing their own dormant malaria parasites, granting them the ability to study how it operates, its vulnerabilities, and how it seemingly resurrects itself.
All of this is housed in engineered human liver tissue. With the malaria parasite so... Read More »
International researchers recently launched an online, open-access database that pools emerging data from a wide range of fields — ranging from economic modeling to weather surveillance to genomic medicine — to improve collaboration on epidemiological research.
A single epidemiological... Read More »
A clinical trial has begun on a new generation of typhoid vaccines and, in a major step, the first African child has been vaccinated.
The trial revolves around a typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) and is being run by Professor Melita Gordon of the University of Liverpool, in conjunction with the... Read More »
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are currently exploring the potential use of “collaborative autonomy” to creates a network of autonomous machines and humans that could be used by first responders.
The research team is developing a coordinated and distributed... Read More »
The effort to identify and contain the capabilities of infectious diseases is going robotic, with the development of a new artificial intelligence algorithm by University of South Carolina (USC) researchers.
A team from USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering developed the algorithm using a mix of... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced plans on Tuesday to develop new sensors and networks that are capable of detecting chemical, biological and explosives threats in real time, which will alert authorities immediately.
DARPA’s SIGMA program currently detects... Read More »
The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a $2.5 million grant to the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense on Thursday, which will be used to help the organization continue to assess biodefense, identify needed changes and make recommendations.
In a 2015 report, the panel made 33 recommendations... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) named five finalists for a $300,000 grant to develop an early warning system that detects emerging biothreats using existing data on Wednesday.
Finalists for the grant, which is being administered by the S&T... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Indiana suggested that an independent cybersecurity agency board should be established to investigate cyber attacks and data breaches after conducting a comprehensive academic review.
The board’s structure would resemble the National Transportation Safety... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Delaware have been awarded a five-year grant by the Army Research Office to develop technology that will enable soldiers to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a distance.
The $1 million grant will help researchers develop an augmented reality system... Read More »
James Madison University students will explore new approaches that the Transportation Administration (TSA) can use to better connect passengers to personal belongings in the spring semester of the Hacking 4 Defense (HD4) class.
Administered through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)... Read More »
A study by the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) has found that light exposure may provide a path to killing airborne flu through the use of far ultraviolet C (UVC) light.
In findings published in Scientific Reports, CUIMC determined that... Read More »
Recognizing the threat that unpredictable biohazards could pose, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has proposed development of a new biosurveillance technology that would rapidly screen unfamiliar bacteria to establish their capacity to harm.
The program, “Friend or Foe,”... Read More »
Bavarian Nordic, a biotechnology company based in Denmark, announced this week the results of a successful Phase 3 clinical trial that demonstrated the safety and efficacy of its investigational, non-replicating smallpox vaccine, IMVAMUNE.
The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious... Read More »
An Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission (FFM) is currently investigating recent allegations about the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The FFM’s mandate is “to establish facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic... Read More »
The Chemical Biological Test Division of the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center Engineering Directorate earned the Director of Army Safety Risk Management Award for establishing new approaches to laboratory safety practices.
Brig. Gen. David Francis, commanding general of the Combat... Read More »
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recently joined 10 congressional colleagues in demonstrating support for funding of three Homeland Security labs.
Officials said correspondence to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees backs full funding of the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory... Read More »
A new study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization found that the global spread of a serious infectious disease could cause 700,000 deaths and annual economic losses of US$500 billion.
"Pandemic risk: How large are the expected losses” applied a theoretical model to... Read More »
While careful to advise that nothing is certain for humans yet, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that West Nile virus--like Zika--has the ability to cross from a mouse to her fetuses, causing brain damage.
The two viruses are known to be... Read More »
Defense Threat Reduction Agency inspectors recently used next-generation radiation detection equipment developed by Sandia Laboratories for the first time in Russia to verify compliance with the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
The new radiation detection equipment replaces an... Read More »
A report released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that birth defects linked to Zika virus infection during pregnancy saw a 21 percent rise over the second half of 2016 in parts of Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
Over a broader spectrum, about three out of... Read More »
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) recently received a $6 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project that will help strengthen its efforts to mitigate global biological threats that have increased as the world has become more interconnected.
According to Dr. Elizabeth Cameron, NTI’s... Read More »
