Research
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 »
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Lockheed Martin a $110 million contract on Wednesday to develop a low-cost, subsonic cruise missile with swarming capabilities, known as the Gray Wolf.
Lockheed Martin was awarded a five-year, phase 1 contract to develop and demonstrate the Gray... Read More »
Washington State University (WSU) students taking part in a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) internship program that promotes the development of equipment for nonproliferation research and training recently developed new technology that addresses safeguards research engineering... Read More »
Though scientists have been working steadily toward understanding and prevention of Zika since 2016, a recent report published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases makes it clear that many questions remain.
For one thing, scientists cannot yet say that another Zika pandemic will not re-emerge,... Read More »
Ten analytical chemists who work in laboratories that support or have plans to support customs services around the world recently completed an Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) training course in the Netherlands.
The inaugural training course, which was held from Dec.... Read More »
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) program recently developed a reusable Aircraft Explosive Testing Simulator to support the testing of explosive vulnerabilities in new generation commercial aircraft.
S&T’s Commercial Aircraft Vulnerability and... Read More »
Operating under the requirements of the FDA “Animal Rule,” the biopharmaceutical company Soligenix, Inc. has identified biomarkers for ricin toxin vaccine (RiVax) testing.
Though RiVax was originally invented at the University of Texas Southwestern, Soligenix has seen a number of... Read More »
Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia and China’s ZhuJiang Hospital recently led a study that identified an antibody that binds to and kills all four types of dengue virus, which could lead to improved vaccines and drug therapies.
The researchers also exposed the... Read More »
A nine-member team of scientists from the University of Oregon is now looking into the ability to genetically deactivate mosquito bites--and disease spreading that results--from mosquito desires for blood.
The team has already made the important step: isolation and sorting of 902 genes linked... Read More »
A new chip designed by scientists by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory could revolutionize the way testing is handled for biological and chemical agents, disease and pharmaceutical drugs.
Called “brain-on-a-chip,” the device allows scientists to simulate the central nervous system... Read More »
A research study by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has found that even 40 years after their infection, survivors of the first known Ebola outbreak bear resistances to future infection.
For the purposes of the study--which was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases last... Read More »
In a recent survey conducted by Accenture and the American Medical Association (AMA), 83 percent of physicians reported that they had experienced a cyberattack at their practice.
Of those who experienced a cyberattack, 55 percent of the attacks involved phishing, and 48 percent involved... Read More »
North Korea’s threats to carry out a nuclear strike on the United States underscores the need for the medical community to be prepared to treat potentially large numbers of patients contaminated by radiation in the event of an attack, but new research shows more training is needed among emergency... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) recently tested a stronger single-dose of a live oral vaccine for cholera and found that it offers faster protection than the standard two-dose regimen of treatment.
UMSOM's Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) developed the... Read More »
A study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has discovered one of the natural factors aiding the spread of dengue globally: common fungus.
Apparently, the fungus lives in the gut of certain mosquitoes, and its presence there helps dengue virus to survive in the... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns of rapidly spreading cases of Diphtheria in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have taken shelter.
Already, six have died and more than 110 suspected cases have been linked to the disease by health partners in-country. A mix... Read More »
Encouraging results have stemmed from human testing of a Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) developed Zika vaccine.
In three separate trials, a Zika purified inactivated virus was introduced into 67 otherwise healthy adults. All were able to tolerate it with no adverse effects, and... Read More »
An investigational vaccine developed by scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Technology (WRAIR) successfully triggered an immune response among adult participants of clinical trials, according to a study published on Monday.
The Zika purified inactivated virus (ZPIV)... Read More »
With U.S. adversaries making steady gains in space capabilities in the decades following the first Gulf War, military leaders called for swifter action to secure U.S. space dominance and for reforms to procurement processes on Saturday.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Gen. John... Read More »
A recently published study from researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, China, found that viral strains in bats contained all the necessary genetic building blocks of the human SARS coronavirus.
The findings, published in PLOS Pathogens, suggest that genetic recombination... Read More »
A study by researchers at Hokkaido University recently used mathematical models to determine that the risk of the pneumonic plague epidemic in Madagascar spreading elsewhere in the world is limited.
The researchers estimated that the number of exported cases was below 0.1 person in each country... Read More »
The response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone led to a less fragmented health system and the development of more effective mental health care services in the country, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released on Thursday.
Prior to the outbreak, one specialist... Read More »
While no effective vaccine yet exists against malaria, researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have taken the world a huge step closer with the discovery of antibodies produced in the wake of malaria infection.
Using mice, they identified long-lived memory cells formed and... Read More »
Cyber researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories recently developed a simulation, which appears real but contains altered data, meant to trick hackers into believing they have infiltrated their target system.
When a hacker is discovered, instead of simply removing them from the data... Read More »
Public health officials warned that malaria response efforts are at a crossroad following the Wednesday release of a report that found 5 million more malaria cases were reported in 2016 than in 2015.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Malaria Report 2017 concluded that funding... Read More »
At an American Security Today ceremony earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) found its efforts lauded, taking away four awards for current projects.
The annual ASTOR Homeland Security Awards recognizes physical, IT, and port... Read More »
Effective Jan. 1, 2018, Terry Wallace has been appointed director of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and president of Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), which operates the laboratory for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Norman J. Pattiz and Barbara E. Rusinko,... Read More »
Researchers at Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) were recently recognized for developing testing methods for low-volatility agent permeation (LVAP) in clothing and protective gear, and for pioneering a system to use 3D printing to produce tactical gear.
The researchers were recognized... Read More »
Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) researchers recently delivered a prototype of a small machine that can perform fingerprinting and forensic analysis, which could help the U.S. armed forces identify insurgents responsible for planting explosive devices.
U.S. and coalition forces may... Read More »
