Research
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 »
Elusys Therapeutics, Inc. announced Wednesday that it delivered the first doses of its treatment for inhalational anthrax, ANTHIM (obiltoxaximab) Injection, to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
The company is providing the treatment to the SNS, the U.S. government’s store of... Read More »
Two Ebola vaccine candidates pose no major safety concerns and can elicit immune responses by one month after initial vaccination, according to a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted in Liberia
The clinical trial was coordinated by researchers with the Partnership for... Read More »
Looking to a drug already on the market for treating thrombocytopenia, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has joined a private corporation in evaluating its use against radiation injuries.
The drug in question is approved for use to treat low blood platelet counts resulting... Read More »
A research team at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) was recently awarded more than $2 million from Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. to begin a Zika virus vaccine trial in Brazil.
Led by David Diemert and Jeffrey Bethony, both professors of... Read More »
In response to reports that more than 230 cases of plague have appeared in Madagascar since August, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently sent a shipment of 1,190,000 doses of antibiotics and released $1.5 million in emergency funds in order to mitigate the spread of the disease.
The... Read More »
Sanofi’s ACAM2000 and associated contracts are now in the possession of Emergent BioSolutions Inc, following payment of a $117.5 million acquisition.
In all, Emergent has gained control of the only smallpox vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a cGMP live viral... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is urging the importance of preparedness when it comes to biomedical research in the face of major disease outbreaks and pandemics.
In an article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association by Anthony Fauci,... Read More »
Smiths Detection recently introduced the HI-SCAN 6040 CTiX checkpoint scanner, the first product to feature the company’s proprietary CT (Computed Tomography) scanning technology, which is designed to enhance checkpoint security and efficiency.
The new scanner, which is being launched at... Read More »
A next-generation Zika virus vaccine candidate was the first to safely elicit an immune response in humans, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Wistar Institute, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and GeneOne Life... Read More »
After evaluating 36 women and fetuses exposed to Zika from January 2016 to May, researchers at Children’s National Health System found that 89 percent of those infected were exposed through a mosquito bite and 48 percent of were also exposed through an infected sexual partner.
Roberta... Read More »
Maryland Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford visited Smiths Detections, Inc. (SDI) facility near Edgewood, Maryland this week where he was given a demonstration of technologies to detect and identify opioids to help protect first responders from exposure.
Smiths Detection develops and manufactures... Read More »
There is something to be said for adapting to modern technology, but the Los Alamos National Laboratory is taking that a step further – leveraging technology with a project that combines Brazilian social media and traditional clinical data to track the growth of infectious diseases.
Nick... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Applied Research Associates, Inc. recently partnered to advance the development of respirators that can be reused up to 100 times for use in public health emergencies.
Under the agreement, which spans 15 months for a total... Read More »
