Research
The first human cases of yellow fever since June have been confirmed in Brazil, and public health officials continue to monitor an epizootic outbreak among primates in São Paulo, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday.
Seventy-one human cases of suspected yellow fever were... Read More »
A congressional proposal to cut the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) by 44 percent would lead to 67 million additional malaria cases in the next four years, according to a recent mathematical model’s estimates.
PMI was launched in 2005 with a goal to reduce malaria by 50 percent in 15... Read More »
Scientists from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and a collaboration of universities have found a biomarker indicator that can identify which patients infected with Ebola are most at risk of death.
The discovery, published in the journal Cell Host &... Read More »
In a move that would head-off the potential closure of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Detrick, the House of Representatives approved a mandatory study of the facility and the nation’s biodefense vulnerabilities on Tuesday.
The House approved the... Read More »
The University of California, Riverside has a team of researchers genetically engineering mosquitoes to insinuate themselves among other, disease-carrying insects and suppress the spread of infectious disease.
The team published a study this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of... Read More »
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories recently successfully conducted a critical experiment using plutonium in order to enhance nuclear safety.
The test was the first successfully conducted critical experiment designed by Livermore Lawrence National Laboratory... Read More »
Research from an assortment of international institutions could yield improved efforts to control and contain cholera outbreaks, thanks to two comprehensive studies that have traced 60 years of outbreaks across the world.
Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean were all the focus of the... Read More »
Steven Walker will lead the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s efforts to target investments in emerging technologies to advance national security as the 21st director of DARPA, the agency recently announced.
Prior to his appointment as director, Walker had been serving as the deputy... Read More »
Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology recently found that immunity to dengue can defend against the Zika virus and identified cytotoxic T-cells that can protect against both infections.
“In some parts of the world Zika is almost like a secondary infection,” Sujan... Read More »
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said that it agreed with the findings of recent covert testing conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) and said it would implement the OIG’s recommendations.
Members of the Office of Inspector... Read More »
A team of researchers from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the University of Georgia, and North Carolina A&T State University have attained a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation for computer-driven methods of disease forecasting.
The institutions hope to develop tools,... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently announced that it would hold a series of Biometric Technology Rallies to support technological advancement relevant to DHS and Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE) operations.
The first rally will... Read More »
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded research grants totaling $27.5 million to researchers at Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame, NNSA announced this week.
The researchers will receive the funds the Stewardship Science... Read More »
Researchers from the Baylor School of Medicine released a report Tuesday that documents a link between West Nile virus and brain damage years after the original infection, even among those who did not experience any symptoms at the time of infection.
Baylor researchers released a report on... Read More »
Contrary to early theories, high rates of microcephaly and other neurological deficits recorded during a 2015 Zika outbreak in Brazil were not the result of modern mutations of the virus, scientists from the Columbia University Medical Center concluded in a report released this week.
Zika virus... Read More »
A testbed will be established in the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York City for chemical detection sensors under an agreement announced between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Tuesday.
The agreement outlines the... Read More »
The invasive Asian tiger mosquito that is proliferating across the United States and Europe can spread Zika and dengue virus infections three times more effective than previously believed, according to a study presented on Tuesday.
After noting that earlier risk assessments of the Asian tiger... Read More »
After serving as the acting director of the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) since May, Eric Moore was named the permanent director of ECBC by Maj. Gen. Cedric Williams effective Oct. 29.
ECBC is tasked with research and development efforts related to non-medical components of... Read More »
A federal fund that helps state and local efforts to detect and respond to disease outbreaks, supports immunization and critical health responses is at risk of legislative elimination, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
The bill that would do so--the CHAMPION Act--is... Read More »
In a recent report and testimony, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Department of Energy (DOE) take a leading role in a collaborative interagency effort on research into low-dose radiation’s health effects.
GAO identified seven federal agencies that obligated... Read More »
Some of the 276 laboratories across the United States that research hazardous pathogens like Ebola virus and anthrax bacteria experience continued safety lapses, leaving oversight reforms needed, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study.
The Federal Select Agent... Read More »
A two-day workshop was recently held in Washington, D.C. that addressed methods of building up the U.S. ability to monitor and analyze its medical countermeasures for use in public health emergencies.
Hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the workshop focused... Read More »
Researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group published two systematic reviews about the use of mefloquine to prevent malaria in travelers.
The reports drew together more than 50 studies that involved more than 1,000,000 participants, in order... Read More »
While efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB) have made progress, more action is needed to reach global targets and close gaps in TB care and prevention, a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found.
The report found that since 2000, global efforts have decreased the TB mortality... Read More »
A new study by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, along with colleagues from Rio de Janeiro, Uruguay, and the United Kingdom, found that populations of Malaria in the Americas are more diverse than was previously thought.
Because the most prevalent species of malaria... Read More »
The malaria-causing Plasmodium falciparum parasite needs two proteins to infect red blood cells and exit the cells after it multiplies, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The researchers... Read More »
CARB-X, a partnership between U.K. and U.S. organizations, has awarded $2.48 million to Amicrobe Inc. for development of a bioengineered antimicrobial designed to help infected tissue.
Presently, the World Health Organization estimates drug-resistant infections kill 700,000 per year. In the... Read More »
In an effort to improve international biosafety and security, the Sandia National Laboratories have created a peer mentorship program to pair experts from developed and developing nations.
The program has been dubbed the Biosafety Twinning program. It operates in six-month terms, focusing on... Read More »
Rutgers University has been awarded a $300,000 contract by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the next two years in order to address a deadly fungal infection spreading through hospitals.
Candida auris is a variant of yeast that can enter the bloodstream and is both... Read More »
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security recently introduced a self-guided exercise scenario to help public health communicators and risk communication researchers prepare for transmission dilemmas they could face during a pandemic.
The SPARS Pandemic scenario book features the outbreak of... Read More »
Biologists from the University of California San Diego have made headway in new flu and anthrax treatments through two separate studies focused on bodily defense.
Experiments in both cases unveiled new mechanisms the body uses to defend itself, working their way up from fruit flies. The results... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) launched Tuesday the Hidden Signals Challenge, a competition that seeks ideas for novel uses of existing data to discover emerging biothreats.
The competition offers a $300,000 prize.
“This Challenge is... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently announced a week-long event to challenge teams from academia, industry, and the software defined radio (SDR) enthusiast community through a series of hacking sessions called the DARPA Bay Area SDR Hackfest on Nov. 17.
According to... Read More »
A joint discovery by the Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden recently found elusive drug resistance genes in bacteria.
Bacteria have been evolving in recent years, mutating to meet our own efforts against them. Even otherwise harmless bacteria can pass... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced a $750,000 Small Business Innovation Program (SBIR) Phase II contract awarded to BlueRISC, Inc. in Amherst, Massachusetts, for the development of a malware attack prediction and identification solution.
“The growth in the frequency,... Read More »
