Research
The Port of Galveston, Texas, announced earlier this month that it would soon be working with TelaForce to implement a system to detect, identify, track and protect against drone incursions around maritime infrastructure.
The technology, according to TelaForce, can identify and locate unmanned... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Arizona (UA) are seeking more users of Kidenga, a community-based participatory science mobile app created by the researchers that tracks potential instances of the Zika virus.
The app encourages users to report symptoms such as the sudden onset of fever, joint... Read More »
Sandia National Laboratories established this week a new fellowship program, which it named after Jill Hruby, its immediate past director and the first woman to direct a National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory.
The Jill Hruby Fellowship Program will provide postdoctoral candidates... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently selected the University of California - San Diego (UCSD) to be part of a research team on a project aimed at curbing the spread of infectious diseases like Zika virus and dengue fever.
UCSD’s selection by DARPA now entitles it to a... Read More »
A new mathematical model developed at Upstate Medical University in New York will help guide researchers to make monthly predictions on when populations are at greatest risk of contracting mosquito-borne diseases, like Zika virus and dengue fever,
The model was developed by Upstate Medical... Read More »
The Edgewood Chemical Biological Laboratory (ECBC) recently acquired a new machine that improves the efficiency and safety in processing orders of dilute chemical agents used for research and testing.
Brandon Bruey, chemist at ECBC’s Chemical Transfer Facility (CTF), said the dilute samples... Read More »
Recent testing conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on large-scale vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED) at Fort Polk will be used to develop new mitigation capabilities and secure vulnerable targets in the Middle East.
The DHS Science and Technology... Read More »
A combination of Google search data and government-supplied clinical data can be used to accurately track mosquito-born illnesses like Dengue fever in developing countries, researchers at Harvard University recently found.
Researchers used Google Trends to track the top 10 dengue related search... Read More »
Shining a spotlight on future generations of researchers, the National Security Agency (NSA) Research Directorate (RD) awarded creators of cyber security and mathematics research projects at the 2017 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
The event--an annual fair which brings... Read More »
The Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) recently recognized Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) researchers Nancy Jo Nicholas and Martyn Swinhoe for their contributions to the nuclear safeguards profession at its 58th annual meeting in Indian Wells, California.
Nicholas, who... Read More »
The International Space Station’s (ISS) microgravity environment could provide a means of improving the understanding of toxic nerve agents, such as sarin and VX, and how to combat them, according to a researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported Countermeasures Against... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) recently awarded two multi-year grants to Molly Duman Scheel, associate professor of medical and molecular genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend, to assist her work in abating mosquito-borne illnesses in order to keep military... Read More »
Two Zika virus vaccine candidates were shown to protect the developing fetus of female mice from infection and associated birth defects, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).
The findings, which were published in a recent issue of... Read More »
A recent discovery made by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Schools of the Health Sciences revealed a loophole in which the influenza virus packages its genetic material to give rise to new strains of the flu.
The research, detailed in a recent issue of the journal Nucleic... Read More »
More than 135 researchers, representing 10 medical centers designated by the U.S. government as a Regional Ebola and other Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC), recently convened at the National Ebola Treatment and Education Center (NETEC) at Emory University in Atlanta for a two-day event to... Read More »
Fifteen analytical chemists representing Latin American and Caribbean member states to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), recently convened at the Laboratory for the Verification of Chemical Weapons (LAVEMA) in Madrid, Span for a two-week training course on the analysis of controlled chemical... Read More »
Tulane University was recently awarded $12 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to test a potential new drug treatment against the Lassa virus and to develop a vaccine candidate against the disease.
The awards were issued through NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Greg Walden (R-OR) recently sent a public letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), regarding the Blue Ribbon Panel’s review of the 2014 smallpox virus incident on the NIH campus that called into question a number of missed opportunities to discover vials... Read More »
The number of passengers that will fly during the summer season is expected to surpass more than 2.5 million people per day, the highest number in years, according to recent estimates from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
According to the TSA, the week of June 25 - July 1, 2017... Read More »
Botulinum toxin, produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria, is the most potent biological toxin known to exist on Earth. The toxin causes botulism, a severe muscle-paralyzing, potentially fatal disease, characteristics that increase its likelihood as a potential bioweapon.
And while the U.S.... Read More »
The New Mexico Department of Health recently awarded a second contract to researchers from the New Mexico State University (NMSU) to expand a previous project map that shows the geographic distribution of mosquitoes that could potentially carry the Zika virus.
According to a release by NMSU,... Read More »
An outbreak of the acute viral hemorrhagic fever illness called Lassa fever has recently been reported by officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) in multiple West African nations including Nigeria.
As of last month, a total of 501 suspected cases have been reported, 104 of which... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the most-recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has officially concluded after
42 days.
According to WHO, the 42-day mark represents two incubation cycles of the virus after the last confirmed... Read More »
Smiths Detection’s IONSCAN 600 explosives trace detection system recently passed certification testing by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
The certification test is the first of a three-step testing sequence required by the TSA’s overall qualification process and is... Read More »
After the completion of a fact-finding mission (FFM) from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the organization recently confirmed the use of sarin gas on April 4 in the Khan Shaykhun area, Idlib Province in the Syrian Arab Republic.
OPCW’s final report was... Read More »
A new DNA vaccine candidate was shown to induce persistent humoral and cellular immune responses and provided protection from the DV1 dengue virus serotype among inoculated mice, according to a recent study conducted by Capital Medical University in Beijing and the Beijing Institute for Brain... Read More »
According to a new study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a new antiviral drug was shown to inhibit a variety of coronaviruses, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which could provide a way to develop new drug... Read More »
Currently, Dr. Jeffrey Laskin, director of the Rutgers University CounterACT Research Center of Excellence, leads a team conducting research on the exposure and health effects of chemical warfare agents used by terrorists. The researchers are determined to develop medical... Read More »
Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) researchers recently received a patent for their field deployable hydrolysis system (FDHS), which was used to destroy approximately 600 tons of Syrian chemical warfare material aboard a maritime vessel in international waters back in 2014.
According to... Read More »
A group of scientists from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, the University of Copenhagen, and North Carolina State University recently published a joint statement that called attention to the lack of information regarding worldwide distribution of disease-causing organisms.... Read More »
According to a report published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Brazilian researchers recently identified for the first time an Aedes aegypti species mosquito that was naturally infected with the East-Central-South-African (ECSA) genotype of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) in Brazil.
Aedes... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently announced a grant of $600,000 to GeoVax Labs, Inc. to support its novel Zika virus (ZIKV) vaccine development program.
The company is in the process of developing two novel Zika virus vaccine candidates, one that... Read More »
A new report from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recently described for the first time a patient’s immune response at the cellular level in response to infection with the Lassa virus.
The patient involved with the study is a male American nurse who was working in Togo, West... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently exercised an operation for the evaluation of Soligenix, Inc.’s ricin toxin vaccine, called RiVax, to fund additional animal efficacy studies.
RiVax is a recombinant heat-stable subunit vaccine that contains a... Read More »
Bavarian Nordic recently announced that a request for proposal from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will be issued for the procurement of lyophilized Imvamune, a freeze dried version of the company’s smallpox vaccine.
The vaccine is currently stockpiled for... Read More »
