Biological
The 2018 Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium presented by the Defense Strategies Institute will take place on March 5-6 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The event will provide a forum for members of the Department of Defense, federal government, private industry, academia,... Read More »
The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a $2.5 million grant to the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense on Thursday, which will be used to help the organization continue to assess biodefense, identify needed changes and make recommendations.
In a 2015 report, the panel made 33 recommendations... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) named five finalists for a $300,000 grant to develop an early warning system that detects emerging biothreats using existing data on Wednesday.
Finalists for the grant, which is being administered by the S&T... Read More »
Homeland security stakeholders will gather on March 5-6 in Virginia at the 6th Annual Joint Civil and Department of Defense (DoD) Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Symposium, where participants will have the opportunity to discuss challenges and improvements to the nation’s... Read More »
The shift in Project BioShield Act of 2004 funding from its original 10-year appropriations cycle to year-by-year funding has posed challenges for the program by creating an uncertain climate for private-sector firms investing in developing medical countermeasures (MCM) against chemical,... Read More »
Following President Donald Trump’s release of his Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal last week, U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) applauded the inclusion of a control shift of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the Department of Health... Read More »
The 2018 Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium presented by the Defense Strategies Institute will take place on March 5-6 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The event will provide a forum for members of the Department of Defense, federal government, private industry, academia,... Read More »
The Chemical Biological Test Division of the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center Engineering Directorate earned the Director of Army Safety Risk Management Award for establishing new approaches to laboratory safety practices.
Brig. Gen. David Francis, commanding general of the Combat... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is proposing an ambitious new program to counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: checking suspects’ epigenetic markers to track history of exposure to associated materials.
The program is being called Epigenetic... Read More »
The 2018 Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium presented by the Defense Strategies Institute will take place on March 5-6 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The event will provide a forum for members of the Department of Defense, federal government, private industry, academia,... Read More »
After being sworn in as the director of the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) on Thursday, Dr. Eric Moore called for effective partnerships with chemical and biological defense stakeholders, academia and industry to develop technologies of the future for warfighters.
Moore,... Read More »
The 2018 Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium presented by the Defense Strategies Institute will take place on March 5-6 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The event will provide a forum for members of the Department of Defense, federal government, private industry, academia,... Read More »
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) recently received a $6 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project that will help strengthen its efforts to mitigate global biological threats that have increased as the world has become more interconnected.
According to Dr. Elizabeth Cameron, NTI’s... Read More »
Decreased and episodic funding from the United States government has stakeholders questioning the true commitment federal lawmakers have for sustaining the nation’s preparedness and response capabilities during a catastrophic event linked to infectious diseases, natural disasters or chemical,... Read More »
A stratified biodefense hospital system would provide the United States with a protective shield in the event the country experiences a man-made or natural biological catastrophe, panelists told members of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.
The suggestion is one the panelists strongly... Read More »
Public health, when threatened not by Obamacare but by exposure to infectious diseases, natural disasters or chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) agents, is an area where members of Congress have been able to build bipartisanship.
Continuing such cross-party work will be... Read More »
A panel of international policy experts told lawmakers Wednesday the best way to help rein in the nuclear ambitions of North Korea is through the intervention of the Chinese government, though none of the panelists expressed much optimism in Chinese assistance any time soon.
“I think getting... Read More »
In order to respond accordingly in the midst of large-scale biological events such as a terrorist attack or natural disaster, public and private organizations need to coordinate, but on Wednesday public health experts at a Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense meeting cited obstacles that highlight... Read More »
The government’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) recently awarded a contract to Battelle to develop software to evaluate threats posed by the creation of dangerous organisms through synthetic biology and genetic engineering.
Thanks to recent advances in biotechnology,... Read More »
North Korea denies claims made in the Trump administration’s recently released National Security Strategy that it “has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons” nor that it has researched “chemical and biological weapons which could be delivered by... Read More »
Experiencing an escalating threat level of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) attacks across its region, the European Commission’s related preparedness plan is extremely important, a London-based expert recently told Homeland Preparedness News.
“I consider this to be... Read More »
Waning U.S. federal and state funding for public health over the last 15 years has left many states ill-prepared to respond to acts of bioterrorism, infectious disease outbreaks and natural disasters, according to a recent report by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH).
The annual report,... Read More »
The Department of Defense (DoD) recently granted Engility Holdings Inc. a position on the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD) Joint Enterprise Research Development Acquisition and Procurement Omnibus contract.
JPEO-CBD manages the military’s... Read More »
A new chip designed by scientists by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory could revolutionize the way testing is handled for biological and chemical agents, disease and pharmaceutical drugs.
Called “brain-on-a-chip,” the device allows scientists to simulate the central nervous system... Read More »
Just a week after an international coalition carried out airstrikes on an ISIS chemical weapons facilities, marines and sailors took part in a three-day course on combating, adapting to and overcoming chemical and biological contaminations from Dec. 5-8.
The course was administered by Corps... Read More »
The recent Chemical Biological Defense Science and Technology Conference featured presentations from 70 U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) researchers on topics ranging from protective armor coatings to battlefield sensing to pharmaceutical-based agents.
Organized by the... Read More »
Plants serve a variety of purposes ranging from food and medicine to clothing and furniture. And now they have a new use – in the Department of Defense (DOD).
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working on a plan to use plants to gather intelligence information.... Read More »
A witness at a House subcommittee hearing on Thursday identified drone delivery of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons as one of the newest threats to homeland security, as lawmakers examined a proposal to reorganize and enhance U.S. defenses against weapons of mass destruction.
The... Read More »
Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) researchers recently delivered a prototype of a small machine that can perform fingerprinting and forensic analysis, which could help the U.S. armed forces identify insurgents responsible for planting explosive devices.
U.S. and coalition forces may... Read More »
The Emergent BioSolutions Inc. facility in Canton, Massachusetts, will soon be manufacturing the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, thanks to approval of a license by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week.
ACAM2000 is notable for being the only FDA-licensed vaccine for active... Read More »
In a move that would head-off the potential closure of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Detrick, the House of Representatives approved a mandatory study of the facility and the nation’s biodefense vulnerabilities on Tuesday.
The House approved the... Read More »
Research from an assortment of international institutions could yield improved efforts to control and contain cholera outbreaks, thanks to two comprehensive studies that have traced 60 years of outbreaks across the world.
Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean were all the focus of the... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently announced that it would hold a series of Biometric Technology Rallies to support technological advancement relevant to DHS and Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE) operations.
The first rally will... Read More »
After serving as the acting director of the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) since May, Eric Moore was named the permanent director of ECBC by Maj. Gen. Cedric Williams effective Oct. 29.
ECBC is tasked with research and development efforts related to non-medical components of... Read More »
A two-day workshop was recently held in Washington, D.C. that addressed methods of building up the U.S. ability to monitor and analyze its medical countermeasures for use in public health emergencies.
Hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the workshop focused... Read More »
