Research
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Wednesday urged President Obama to use unspent funds from other programs to combat the emerging threat of Zika virus in the United States.
Rubio sent a letter to the president, citing specific examples of unused funds that could be reallocated in an expedited... Read More »
Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), released a study on Wednesday that found six Zika virus antibodies, including four that neutralize African, Asian and American strains of the virus.
Dr. Michael S.... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY) on Tuesday decried actions by his congressional colleagues for jeopardizing the development of a vaccine for the Zika virus.
Donovan’s statement came in the wake of three different companies threatening to halt their developments due to funding uncertainty.... Read More »
Soligenix released positive preliminary proof-of-concept results on Monday from its collaboration with Axel Lehrer to develop a heat-stable subunit Ebola virus vaccine.
Lehrer is a doctor in the Department of Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology at the John A. Burns School of... Read More »
Researchers at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) and CBI Polymer recently explored how a HydroGel can be modified to decontaminate surfaces contaminated with harmful biological agents, such as the anthrax-inducing Bacillus anthracis.
HydroGel is a biosynthetic polymer that can be... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began a series of actions this week designed to combat the emerging threat of Zika virus and to mitigate its spread throughout the U.S. and the world.
The FDA began with important steps to help protect the safety of the blood supply. One of the first... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) provided BioCryst Pharmaceuticals with additional funding on Monday for efficacy studies of BCX4430 in non-human primates to further assist effective dose regimens.
BCX4430 is a broad-spectrum antiviral that is advancing toward... Read More »
An independent panel of public health, emergency response and communication experts issued a report on Friday on the Ebola epidemic of 2014, identifying recommendations to improve the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) response to urgent public health threats.
Concerns... Read More »
The Partnership for Research on Ebola virus in Liberia (PREVAIL) on Monday opened PREVAIL IV, a treatment trial for men who have survived Ebola virus disease (EVD) but continue to have evidence of Ebola virus genetic material - RNA - in their semen.
The trial is sponsored by the National... Read More »
A coalition of research institutions published a report in the Clinical Infectious Disease Journal on Wednesday that analyzed the immune responses of Ebola patients treated in the United States.
The coalition includes the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), the Emory University School... Read More »
The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) released a report on Tuesday detailing how a single dose of either of two experimental Zika vaccines protected mice infected with the virus for four to eight weeks after receiving the inoculations.
NIAID said that this... Read More »
Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) presented data on Monday regarding gene sequences and the global variations in malaria parasites.
NIAID researchers determined the genomes of approximately 200 P. vivax strains that recently infected people in... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.’s Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) received a task order on Monday valued at up to $21.9 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop and manufacture a Zika vaccine.
Three cGMP lots... Read More »
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), along with the scientific research organization Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, began a multi-country study on Tuesday to evaluate the magnitude of the health risks that Zika virus infection poses on pregnant women and their developing fetuses and infants.... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) completed its Pre-Approval Inspection (PAI) of Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.’s Building 55 for the large-scale manufacturing of BioThrax (anthrax vaccine adsorbed).
Following the PAI’s conclusion, Emergent BioSolutions received a No Action Indicated... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.’s supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking approval for the manufacture of BioThrax (anthrax vaccine adsorbed) at the company’s Building 55 was accepted for review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week.
“Emergent’s... Read More »
The House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held a hearing on Tuesday concerning the U.S. public health response to antibiotic resistant bacteria, otherwise known as “superbugs.”
The hearing was initiated after the discovery of the MCR-1 gene in a Pennsylvania woman who contracted... Read More »
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 »
