US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)

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Summary

The United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) is the DoD lead medical research laboratory on biological threats resulting in medical solutions to protect military service members and the greater public. The facility contains the only Department of Defense laboratory equipped with a BSL 4 laboratory for highly hazardous infectious agents requiring maximum containment.

Currently, USAMRIID-developed vaccine candidates for anthrax and ricin are in clinical testing. Other vaccine candidates for plague, botulinum neurotoxins A and B, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis are in advanced development, as is the Joint Biological Agent Identification System (JBAIDS), an integrated diagnostics platform for biological threat agents. Vaccines for staphylococcal enterotoxins A and B, hantaviruses, and five additional serotypes of botulinum neurotoxins (designated C-G) are soon to be transitioned. About a dozen other vaccines developed at USAMRIID are maintained in Investigational New Drug status and are used to immunize at-risk personnel in the lab and in the field when necessary. The Institute is also working to develop therapeutics for a number of agents, such as Ebola virus, plague, several toxins, and orthopoxviruses, including smallpox.

Last Updated 03.24.12