Research
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 »
A long-acting therapy to prevent malaria could supplant the current daily oral dosing regimen that is susceptible to non-adherence, researchers at the University of Liverpool and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have found.
Researchers set out to manipulate the molecular makeup... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories announced Tuesday that a recent program to develop computer modeling and simulation methods for how blasts on the battlefield cause injury could help improve designs for helmets and body armor.
The project focuses on improving understanding of how impacts from... Read More »
Mice immunized by a synthetic horsepox virus show promise in the development of an alternative smallpox vaccine, outside the boundaries of existing--often troublesome--vaccinia virus use.
In a study published in the Open Access journal PLOS ONE, researchers from the University of Alberta,... Read More »
A monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria probably originated from within the country recently highlighted the need for local surveillance and advanced genetic characterizations to help pinpoint the origins of outbreaks, a team of multinational researchers said.
From Sept. 4 to Dec. 9, 61 cases of... Read More »
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recently called on senators to take a series of steps in reauthorizing the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) to ensure that states, local communities, and medical providers can protect against threats to public health.
IDSA’s... Read More »
Researchers recently tested a millimeter wave imager designed to discreetly scan for potential threat items at the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s (MBTA) emergency training center in Boston.
In partnership with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology... Read More »
Though the discovery comes with some worrisome caveats, researchers have begun the journey to reversing the memory loss effects of West Nile virus through the use of a drug.
In a study focused on mice, scientists identified the potential cause of the neurological issues: unresolved inflammation... Read More »
Through genome analysis and chemogenetics, researchers at the University of California (UC) San Diego School of Medicine, along with national and international associates, have confirmed genetic modifications that have led to malaria’s drug resistance and revealed new drug targets contained... Read More »
Regents of the University of Michigan (U-M) and the Duke University Hospital now share a distinction among infectious disease and antimicrobial experts with their recent designation of Antimicrobial Stewardship Centers of Excellence by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
The... Read More »
Duke University researchers recently conducted a study that showed how the Dengue virus reproduces in an infected individual without triggering the body’s normal defense mechanisms.
According to the study, the virus slowly takes over the endoplasmic reticulum, an accordion-shaped structure in... Read More »
A five-year partnership agreement has been reached between the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), representing a $28 million investment in the fight against viral outbreaks.
DARPA’s Pandemic Protection Platform will be... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories geophysicist Danny Bowman recently presented at the American Geophysical Union conference the results of an experiment in which he launched a fleet of five solar-powered balloons he built to detect the infrasound from a test explosion.
The results, which could have... Read More »
National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists recently conducted a small clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center of an experimental treatment for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus infection in which the treatment was well tolerated by healthy volunteers.
SAB Biotherapeutics... Read More »
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) recently gleaned new understanding into how an antibody neutralizes the Marburg virus, a pathogen with no known treatment that holds the same pandemic potential as the Ebola virus.
Previous research indicated that an antibody known as MR191... Read More »
The government’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) recently awarded a contract to Battelle to develop software to evaluate threats posed by the creation of dangerous organisms through synthetic biology and genetic engineering.
Thanks to recent advances in biotechnology,... Read More »
During a visit to the plague-shaken nation of Madagascar, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), called for a $4 million investment to effectively combat the biological threat.
The most recent outbreak of pneumonic and bubonic plague in-country left... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) selected Tucson-based Raytheon Company Monday to complete development of software that enables unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to leverage collaborative autonomy to perform long-distance engagements in contested battle spaces.
After successful flight... Read More »
A request for innovators (RFI) has been released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), officially beginning the search for partners on emergency response technology development by 2020.
There are three projects on which the department is... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Queensland recently “supercharged” an old antibiotic by modifying its membrane-binding properties to successfully attack deadly antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, or superbugs.
Mark Blaskovich and Matt Cooper of the University of Queensland’s... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a new program last week that aims to predict and prevent cross-species transmission of viral diseases to bolster military readiness.
The program, called Preventing Emerging Pathogenic Threats (PREEMPT), will explore how pathogens... Read More »
Scientists at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have developed predictive, end-to-end modeling capabilities that can differentiate between conventional high explosives weapons tests and non-nuclear explosives tests that are part of a nuclear weapons program.
Developed by the... Read More »
The parasite Leishmania may be getting aided by viruses in its infection of invertebrates, as well as causing significantly worse disease than those without, according to a new evolutionary study.
The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, comes from the head of... Read More »
An enzyme that makes pandemic cholera resistant to last-line antibiotics acts on a different mechanism than similar proteins in bacteria, researchers at the University of Georgia reported last month.
Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs), which naturally produced by both bacteria and human... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently prequalified the first typhoid conjugate vaccine on Wednesday that’s been shown to boost immune response typhoid in infants as young as six months old.
Prequalification of the typhoid conjugate vaccine, called Typbar-TCV, allows procurement... Read More »
The ability of the Ebola virus to copy itself and spread through hosts can be “switched off” by manipulating a host factor enzyme, according to a recent study by European researchers.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Phillips Universität Marburg in Germany discovered that... Read More »
Twenty-two districts in Uganda were recently identified by researchers as cholera “hotspots” that should be targeted by cholera control programs in the country and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health identified the areas as high-risk... Read More »
