Research
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted orphan drug status to Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., on Wednesday for BioThrax (anthrax vaccine adsorbed) for post-exposure prophylaxis of anthrax disease from suspected or confirmed exposure to Bacillus anthraces.
BioThrax is the only... Read More »
The Los Alamos National Laboratory is holding its annual Robot Rodeo, a competition that tests the abilities of bomb disposal robots from companies throughout the southwest, this week.
“The Robot Rodeo gives bomb-squad teams the opportunity to practice and hone their skills in a lively but... Read More »
Chimerix’s President and CEO M. Michelle Berrey participated in a panel focused on North Carolina’s role in biodefense preparation at the recent “Medical, Biomedical and Biodefense: Support to the Warfighter Symposium.”
"In the event of a smallpox bioweapon event or accidental release,... Read More »
Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) researchers took to the New York City subway system last month to aid in conducting a series of tests on how a biological agent, such as anthrax, might disperse throughout the rapid transit system as a result of a bioterrorism attack or accidental release.... Read More »
Science Applications International Corp. (SIAC) was awarded a five-year, multiple-award, indefinite deliver, indefinite quantity contract worth up to $460 million on Wednesday from the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Systems Integration and Management (FEDSIM) and U.S. Cyber Command... Read More »
With the world’s volume of stored data doubling each year, an opportunity exists for organizations across the globe to analyze that data and use it to add business value, particularly as it relates to defense and cybersecurity, according to Matthew Kuckuk, CGI Group’s data analytics global... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) on Monday agreed to sponsor a new point-of-care anthrax diagnostic test.
The 18-month, $2.5 million agreement is through ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a sponsored study on Tuesday that found that up to 99 percent of chemical contamination can be removed by carefully removing clothes and wiping skin with a paper towel or dry wipe.
The study was sponsored by HHS’s Office of the... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Monday that one of the nation’s Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) will support the development of NasoShield, a second-generation anthrax vaccine.
“Anthrax remains a material threat to... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reported on Monday that an experimental malaria vaccine protected a small number of healthy, malaria-naïve adults from infection for more than one year after immunization.
The... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) on Friday exercised an option for RiVax, Soligenix, Inc.’s new heat-stable ricin vaccine.
Terms of the agreement are to advance the development of Soligenix’s thermostabilization technology, ThermoVax, combined with the... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its medical countermeasures initiative (MCMi) fiscal year 2015 update on Thursday as required by the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013.
The FDA laughed the MCMi in 2010, building on the substantive medical... Read More »
The U.S. Navy announced on Thursday that it has awarded Raytheon a $1 billion sole source contract for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) for increment 1 of the next generation jammer (NGJ).
The NGJ is an advanced electronic attack technology that combines high-powered, agile,... Read More »
Raytheon announced on Tuesday that it had successfully passed the first qualification milestone for testing the U.S. Air Force's new Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (GPS OCX), an enhanced version of the GPS that millions rely on every day.
The Configuration... Read More »
Founded in 2001 to train professionals in biosecurity and disaster preparedness, the Institute for Biosecurity at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice recently told Homeland Preparedness News that the United States needs to continuously improve on its... Read More »
At an industry day hosted by U.S. Army Cyber Command as part of the Army's Cyber Innovation Challenge last week, officials engaged tech industry vendors and assessed technology solutions and prototypes that could potentially increase the Army’s ability to combat threats to cyber security, as well... Read More »
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of California Los Angeles recently released information on a collaborative project regarding the viral mechanisms of infection by creating screening libraries based on CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)... Read More »
The RAND Corporation released a new report on Thursday that highlights new counterterrorism tactics and technologies to help prevent potential disasters in various cities throughout Europe.
The new report illustrates the essential role of counterterrorism technologies used by diverse... Read More »
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), along with Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) criticizing the department’s response to the ongoing spread of the Zika... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the details for its latest Grand Challenge on Wednesday - ensuring that the rapidly growing number of military and civilian wireless devices can function with the increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum.
DARPA officials... Read More »
FLIR Systems, Inc., announced on Monday that it has been awarded new contracts totaling $38 million for FLIR man-portable multispectral targeting systems and integrated mobile long-range multispectral imaging and command and control systems.
The buyer is an international military customer, but... Read More »
Soligenix, Inc., announced on Wednesday that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has exercised its option to accelerate the regulatory activities with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Soligenix's heat stable ricin toxin vaccine RiVax.
The NIAID’s... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced more than $1.6 billion on Monday for 10 DHS preparedness grants programs as part of the release of a FY 2016 Notices of Funding Opportunity.
Funding will be provided to state, local tribal and territorial governments, along with... Read More »
The National Institutes of Health announced last week that it is aiming to develop new and improved therapeutics to treat injuries from exposure to chemical threats.
The grant is entitled the “Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT): Identification of Therapeutic Lead... Read More »
The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) announced on Monday that it has built an enhanced threat detection device called CASTLE that increases the range of detection for CBRNE threats.
CASTLE, which stands for CBRNE assessment science and technology lab at ECBC, greatly... Read More »
After a three-day consultation on the virus, the World Health Organization released the criteria on Wednesday by which Zika virus research and development should advance.
The first way to to combat the virus to is continue to develop novel ultiplex tests for flaviviruses, or viruses related to... Read More »
The Alliance for Biosecurity applauded Wednesday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approval of the Medical Countermeasure Innovation Act, S. 2055.
The legislation would accelerate the development of new vaccines and medicines meant to protect American citizens from... Read More »
Immunovaccine, Inc., announced on Wednesday that it will begin a research project toward the development of a vaccine to fight against the emerging Zika virus.
Immunovaccine said the vaccine will be developed using its proprietary DepoVax platform, which has produced some promising results in... Read More »
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Joint Science and Technology Office, along with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, announced this week that a compound demonstrated no adverse effects in its Phase 1 trials against the Ebola virus.
The compound, GS-5734,... Read More »
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced this week that they have developed a new simulation for drug-membrane permeability, increasing the production speed for nerve agent treatments.
By using in-house supercomputers, LLNL researchers are simulating the energy... Read More »
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on Wednesday about the continuing danger posed by Zika virus to the Americas and plans to respond to the virus both nationally and internationally.
Zika virus is primarily spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Such... Read More »
The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced a discovery last week that a single monoclonal antibody isolated from a human Ebola virus disease survivor protected non-human primates from the virus.
The antibody can now advance to testing in humans as a potential... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) announced a collaborative effort on Thursday to establish the “Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CARB) Biopharmaceutical Accelerator” to help fight against antimicrobial resistance.
The collaboration involves the... Read More »
The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) announced the signing of a series of licensing agreements on Thursday with Biodetech, LLC, allowing the company to utilize the Agents of Biological Origin Identifier (ABOid).
ABOid is a pathogen identification platform developed by... Read More »
The Preparedness Summit announced on Thursday that it would hold a plenary session titled “Making Smart Choices: Disaster Risk Reduction at Home and Abroad” based on disaster risk prevention.
The plenary session will be held on March 20 and will be hosted by leading experts on disaster risk... Read More »
