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One of the most searing memories Thomas Frieden had during the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak was one in which he deeply questioned the international community’s effectiveness in supporting the health infrastructure of Ebola-plagued nations.
Then head of the Centers for Disease Control and... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Queensland have created a technology that will help create safer hybrid viruses at higher volumes for research and diagnostic efforts involving mosquito-borne diseases.
The key to the technology was the Binjari virus. Study researchers exploited the benign... Read More »
The Stop TB Partnership launched an update to its plan to end tuberculosis that includes billions in annual funding.
The partnership’s Global Plan to End TB 2018-2022 calls for $2.6 billion per year for the research and development of new tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tools, new drug regimens,... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) are testing a vaccine to protect against serious diarrheal illnesses caused by food and water contaminated with bacteria like E. coli and Shigella.
Drs. Wilbur Chen and Eileen Barry will lead these tests, thanks to $4.5... Read More »
Per an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Sanofi Pasteur will gain $226 million to increase its domestic pandemic influenza vaccine production capabilities.
This money will go to the clinical development and manufacturing of an adjuvanted recombinant pandemic... Read More »
A group of Republican congressmen recently urged the U.S. State Department to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs).
“Think about this: a Mexican state that shares a 230-mile border with the U.S. holds the same State Department travel warning as Iran and... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched CURE ID, an online repository that allows the clinical community to report their experiences treating infectious diseases.
CURE ID – which can be accessed via smartphone or other mobile devices – is a platform that enables the crowdsourcing of... Read More »
The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) awarded about $376 million in grants to reinforce public safety efforts across the United States.
“Crime and violence hold families, friends, and neighborhoods hostage. They also rip those communities apart,” Principal Deputy... Read More »
The constantly changing nature of the influenza virus makes it an annual effort of scientists, manufacturers, and the medical community to devise and disseminate vaccines to combat the disease.
What if those efforts could be streamlined to develop a universal flu vaccine that could attack any... Read More »
A bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate this week that seeks to protect people’s personal data online.
The Data Care Act would require websites, apps, and other online providers to take steps to protect users’ personal information and prevent the misuse of users’ data.
“People have a... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Xochitl Torres Small (D-NM) and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) introduced a bill to improve border security through enhanced detection technology at land ports of entry.
The Securing America’s Ports Act seeks to increase the scanning rates of vehicles entering the United States by land with... Read More »
The World Health Organization has reported 440,263 confirmed cases of measles as of Nov. 5., with most in Africa.
Specifically, in Africa, outbreaks are ongoing in Madagascar, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the Congo, there are 250,270 suspected cases with 5,110... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) released a statement last week supporting the creation of an interagency task force tasked with addressing the high rate of missing and murdered Native American women and girls.
Native American women in certain tribal communities are 10 times more likely to be murdered... Read More »
Members of the Michigan congressional delegation are urging the new Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett to select Selfridge Air National Guard Base to host the Air National Guard’s next F-35A operational base.
In a letter to Barrett, 14 members of Congress from Michigan highlighted the... Read More »
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held its Electronic Warfare Advisory Committee (NEWAC) meeting this week to discuss electronic warfare (EW) and strategies and initiatives to counter it.
Electronic warfare (EW) is a military action that exploits electromagnetic energy to provide... Read More »
The nation’s land grant universities play an important role in helping the federal government bolster agro-defense, according to scientists, policymakers, industry and academic leaders who participated in a recent Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense event held at Colorado State University... Read More »
With the advancement of U.S. Sens. Gary Peters’ (D-MI) and Rob Portman’s (R-OH) State and Local Government Cybersecurity Act, the Senate has signaled encouragement to federal authorities to coordinate better with state and local governments.
“State and local governments with limited... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently approved the reopening and partial operations of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) lead laboratory for medical biological defense research.
This... Read More »
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were among a group of U.S. Senators that expressed their concerns that the U.S. Department of Commerce has started issuing export licenses to U.S. firms to do business with Huawei Technologies.
Huawei, the Chinese telecom company, was added to the... Read More »
The Senate Banking Committee advanced legislation to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program for seven years.
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program was established following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The program – created after Congress passed the Terrorism Risk... Read More »
China is rapidly gaining on the United States when it comes to creating technology that mitigates disease threats and developing pharmaceuticals faster, and it’s a phenomenon driven by a philosophy that the state, military, and the private sector are one in the same.
That was the testimony of... Read More »
The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing on a report on a Chinese program that captures U.S. Intellectual property.
Through its “talent recruitment plans” launched in the 1990s, China began recruiting U.S.-based scientists and researchers and providing... Read More »
Austin, Texas-based Factom, Inc. has secured $197,292 in funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) to enhance blockchain security system development.
DHS officials said they envision agencies using the technology to create and verify... Read More »
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week issued final guidance for developing smallpox treatment studies, providing clarity to drug manufacturers.
“Despite recent advances in developing an effective treatment for smallpox, drug developers still face challenges in bringing... Read More »
Federal regulatory updates to the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program that go into effect on Nov. 21 could receive some additional muscle to knock out bad actors if recently introduced federal legislation is enacted.
“I still have concerns about fraud and abuse in the program that can only be... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) awarded a $6 million contract to Burlingame, Calif.-based Inflammatix Inc. to develop a new testing technology that reads gene expression patterns in the immune system.
The innovative technology, known as host-response testing,... Read More »
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) released a report assessing the five new nuclear weapon systems announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Based on its analysis, NTI called for an extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START Treaty.
The report, called Russia’s New... Read More »
The U.S. Senate passed the Federal Advance Contracts Enhancement (FACE) Act, which requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to more effectively manage its advance contracts for goods and services.
Specifically, the legislation requires federal preparedness actions to be... Read More »
A bill advanced out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee seeks to reauthorize and increase funding for the northern United States border’s Operation Stonegarden program for the next five years, injecting $110 million into border security operations.
U.S. Sen. Jon... Read More »
Three agencies under the Department of Justice umbrella have earmarked $95 million to support Tennessee public safety efforts.
The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) funding allotment would target... Read More »
Techulon Inc. was awarded $785,000 to develop an antimicrobial that would kill drug-resistant bacteria by targeting specific genes critical to the bacteria’s survival.
The funding was from Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) – a global non-profit... Read More »
More than 40 experts from nine Central African nations met in October at an event hosted by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to advance biosafety and biosecurity in the region.
The event, held in Libreville, Gabon, was the... Read More »
Twitter suspended content affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah, following a request by members of Congress.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Reps. Tom Reed (R-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), and Max Rose (D-NY), sent a... Read More »
A bipartisan group of federal legislators introduced last week a bill to fight the spread of synthetic drugs.
Synthetic drugs are re-engineered to circumvent federal laws designed to outlaw them. The Stop Importation and Manufacturing of Synthetic Analogues (SIMSA) Act would allow substances... Read More »
A group of Democratic U.S. Senators introduced a bill that would preserve access to T-band spectrum for emergency personnel.
The bill – called Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act -- repeals a provision of the 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, which directed the Federal... Read More »
