Research
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced it will purchase a lyophilized, or freeze-dried, smallpox vaccine for use by women who are pregnant or nursing and for people of any age who have HIV or atopic dermatitis.
The vaccine, developed by Denmark-based... Read More »
A new initiative aiming to utilize the benefits of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as customer-produced solar energy for restoration and recovery purposes after severe storms, was recently launched by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
Led by LLNL... Read More »
Testing for anthrax could soon become a lot quicker, as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced it is in the midst of researching a point-of-care diagnostic test that could determine infection within 15 minutes.
The test determines whether a patient has been infected with... Read More »
The Ebola virus uses the body’s natural defenses to speed the rate of infection and cause its lethal effects, according to a recent study conducted by researchers with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).
The study was in collaboration with the University of Washington... Read More »
Antibodies taken from patients infected with dengue fever are effective in treating Zika virus infection in rodents, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from Imperial College London and the Washington University in St. Louis.
Found in multiple regions throughout the world,... Read More »
Soligenix Inc. announced this week it is the recipient of $700,000 in funding to support a research project grant for the University of Hawai’i at Manoa aimed at developing a thermostabilized Ebola vaccine.
Soligenix, a biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes products which... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently issued a Request for Information (RFI) to identify new technological components to aid its Mobile Force Protection (MFP) program in detecting and neutralizing small unmanned air system (sUAS) technologies.
Rather than end-to-end... Read More »
Three-quarters of mainland U.S. counties are now environmentally suitable for disease-transmitting mosquitoes, according to an update of models by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Two mosquito species--aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus--can survive for at least part of the... Read More »
A recent study by a Northeastern University associate research scientist found that increased time spent outdoors correlated to a higher risk for Zika infection.
The researcher, Marco Ajelli, surveyed residents of the Miami-Dade area and found that while the majority of people spent less than... Read More »
Experts from the Oregon State University, the Oregon Health and Science University’s College of Pharmacy and the Oregon Health Authority say that communication breakdowns are among the leading potentials for infection outbreaks of drug-resistant bacteria.
Supported by a slew of organizations,... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently awarded a total of $11.5 million to a team of researchers from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, the University of Notre Dame and the Center for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR) to examine how the gene of the... Read More »
Two genes called Fut9 and SLc35c1, which regulate the metabolism of a particular sugar in cells, are responsible for making ricin so lethal to humans, according to a recently conducted study by researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA).
The... Read More »
Animals such as tayra, new world monkeys, sloths, porcupines, and coatis may be incubators for a parasite that causes Chagas disease, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of California-Riverside (UCR).
Despite affecting approximately 8 million people... Read More »
A new public-private partnership between the federal government and Janssen Research & Development LLC seeks to jointly innovate new products in the constantly evolving battle against influenza.
The partnership will see the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant... Read More »
Battelle introduced a new version of its DroneDefender device, which is used to counter threats from Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), at Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference’s Technology Symposium this week.
The DroneDefender V2, a handheld and man-portable device, disrupts... Read More »
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently conducted a study on the capabilities and challenges of medical device technologies in order to assess their abilities to rapidly diagnose infectious diseases.
As infectious diseases continue to pose a public health threat throughout the... Read More »
A new experimental vaccine immunized genetically-altered mice from the Leishmania parasite, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).
With more than 30 different strains, Leishmania is classified at the world’s... Read More »
Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY) announced this week that the U.S. House of Representatives advanced his amendment to restore funding to the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL).
NUSTL, which is located in New York City, researches, develops and assesses new technologies for use by law... Read More »
A new drug called AQ-13 was shown to be effective against non-severe cases of malaria, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at Tulane University.
Results of the study may prove to be significant as worldwide disease researchers are increasingly finding that the parasite... Read More »
An office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced that it would provide up to $62 million over the next five years to Summit Therapeutics for the development of an antibiotic to combat Clostridium difficile infections (CDI).
The secondary infection can occur... Read More »
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the United States Postal Service (USPS) should assess whether the costs of the new Electronic Advance Data (EAD) program outweigh the benefits.
In 2014 and 2015, USPS and CPB launched two pilot programs at the New York International Service Center (ISC)... Read More »
Artemisinin, a Chinese medicine used to treat malaria that often faces issues with an unstable supply, can be rapidly produced at an industrial rate by genetically engineering moss, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education the University... Read More »
Seeking to overturn boundaries to the development of vaccines against pathogen outbreaks, the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) has announced a successful study of early immune response with serious implications.
DZIF scientists at the Heinrich Pette Institute and the University... Read More »
Researchers at Duke University recently developed a three-dimensional map of the complex molecular circuitry of Francisella tularensis, the bacteria that causes tularemia, in order to better understand how the pathogen becomes virulent.
"Now we have the coordinates for stopping one of the most... Read More »
The Advanced Off-Board Electronic Warfare (AOEW) system developed by Lockheed Martin recently passed Preliminary Design Review on schedule.
The AOEW will provide MH-60 helicopters with enhanced electronic warfare surveillance and countermeasure capabilities against anti-ship missile (ASM)... Read More »
Nonhuman primates were recently protected against Lassa fever by using three types of monoclonal antibodies eight days after they became infected with the virus, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).
While the virus is known... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories recently developed a software application for mobile and traditional computing devices analyze gamma radiation data collected at the scene of an emergency involving radiation.
Sandia’s InterSpec team includes software developer and physicist Will Johnson and... Read More »
The gradual increase of the earth’s surface temperature enhances the metabolism of mosquitoes and increases the risk of dengue fever outbreaks, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Liverpool, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and the National... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced that it awarded four contracts for concrete prototypes of a southern border wall, which will help deter illegal crossings where they are constructed and allow CBP to evaluate new designs.
Caddell Construction Co., (DE), LLC based in... Read More »
The Alabama Department of Public Health recently announced the launch of a serious infectious disease response network in order to help identify and respond to potential outbreaks as they occur.
According to Mary McIntyre, chief medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, the... Read More »
Start-ups and small biotech companies are the most-promising developers for new medical countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, but they face serious challenges, according to Battelle's Senior Market Manager for Medical and CBRN Products Russell Coleman.... Read More »
The Nebraska Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) recently underwent an inspection of its patient care, quality control, and other critical facets and was subsequently reaccredited by the College of American Pathologists.
The reaccreditation places the lab among 7,700 other accredited facilities... Read More »
A meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) assembled experts in human and animal health last week to address early warning systems for animal-to-human (zoonotic) disease outbreaks.
“Early detection is the key,” Trevor Shoemaker, a CDC epidemiologist formerly based in Uganda,... Read More »
A recently developed mathematical model accurately forecasted that a large-scale cholera outbreak would peak in war-torn Yemen by early July 2017, triggering more than 750,000 cases.
The model was developed by researchers at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.
While various amounts of... Read More »
Future measles vaccination strategies in high-fertility countries should focus on increasing childhood immunization rates, while immunization campaigns targeting adolescents and young adults should be required in low-fertility countries, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at... Read More »
