NHRC, Mayo Clinic Study Immune Response Following Smallpox Vaccination

Smallpox Virus Cluster (CDC)In collaboration with Dr. Gregory Poland at the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic, researchers from the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) are looking at the role human genes have on individual variability of immune responses following smallpox vaccination. Study results evaluating associations between genetics and smallpox vaccine response were published online, April 18, in Genes and Immunity. Continue reading

Global Research Collaboration Yields New Rotavirus Vaccine

RotavirusHighly contagious rotaviruses are the leading cause of severe diarrheal illnesses among infants and young children in both developed and resource-limited countries. Each year, rotavirus-induced diarrheal disease kills roughly 435,000 children younger than 5 years old and hospitalizes an estimated two million children worldwide, largely in developing countries.

A research collaboration Continue reading

Army Conducting Market Research on Next-Generation Diagnostics for Biothreats

JPEO CBD - Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological DefenseThe Chemical Biological Medical Systems – Biosurveillance (CBMS-BSV) is soliciting information to support strategic planning for development of the Next Generation Diagnostics System (NGDS) acquisition strategy.

Information gathered under this effort will be reviewed as part of a market survey in support of the NGDS Increment 2 acquisition program planned Continue reading

First Responder Technologies Sought – DHS LRBAA

HazMat First RespondersThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has updated its Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (LRBAA) research topics of interest for First Responder Technologies. 

Proposals for revolutionary, evolving, and maturing technologies that demonstrate the potential for significant improvement in the Continue reading

Scientists Develop Tiny Nanomedicines to Fight Inflammation

Pro-Resolving NanomedicinesResearchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Columbia University Medical Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed nanomedicines 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair strand that are capable of encapsulating and releasing an inflammation-resolving peptide drug.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers Continue reading

DHS Standardized Test and Evaluation of Biological Threat Agent Detectors

Pandemic PreparednessThe U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has selected Health Research Inc. with the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health to develop standard test methods to support field evaluation of technologies used for biological agent detection.

The proposed work will address current gaps in standards by defining field testing needs, methods and performance requirements. The resulting Continue reading

JHU APL Develops Novel Method to Accurately Predict Disease Outbreaks

JHU Applied Physics Lab PRISM Disease Prediction MethodA team of scientists from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has developed a novel method to accurately predict dengue fever outbreaks several weeks before they occur. 

The new method, known as PRISM — PRedicting Infectious Disease Scalable Model — extracts relationships between clinical, meteorological Continue reading