Courtesy Story | Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department | 06.04.2019
An old military adage says that amateurs talk tactics while professionals study logistics. For deployed warfighters, perhaps one of the most important logistical items are medical supplies, such as blood products and medicine. But there are numerous challenges to providing medical supplies at the right place and at the right time....
Courtesy Story | Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department | 06.04.2019
The long and winding journey that leads to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a medicine is extremely expensive and littered with failed candidates. In “Drugs, Devices, and the FDA: Part 1” (published in April 2016 by JACC: Basic to Translational Science), Gail A. Van Norman, MD, writes that new drugs can take an average of 12 years before they go on the market — from......
Courtesy Story | Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department | 06.04.2019
It’s a typical August afternoon in the southeastern U.S. The hot, humid air is thick enough to slice with a knife. Everyone feels somewhere between uncomfortable and miserable. Now imagine if it were humid and 170 degrees Fahrenheit as in a sauna. Though this high heat and humidity would agonize most people and stall machinery operation, it kills biological warfare agents (BWAs): potentially......
Story by Nate McDonald | Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department | 03.26.2019
Nearly 200,000 American warfighters are based in more than 175 countries around the world, and each installation presents its own set of situational and operational requirements. A deliberate release or naturally occurring spread of infectious diseases poses a serious threat to warfighters and their operational effectiveness. Protecting them requires strong decision analysis and tools to......
Courtesy Story | Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department | 03.26.2019
The human body is complex, highly integrated and very smart. It has evolved over time to be able to build immunities to all sorts of deadly threats. The body develops an immune memory so it can react quickly and fight future exposures to threats. Unfortunately, it also builds an immunity to medical countermeasures, vaccines and drugs used to treat those exposed to threats. The Defense Threat......
Courtesy Story | Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department | 01.30.2019
Nanobots have long been dreamed of by scientists and science fiction writers alike – microscopic machines that enter the bloodstream or operate undetected. What if nature could be harnessed to provide similar capabilities? What if warfighters had the capability to both counteract and treat chemical weapon agents in real-time? The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chemical and......
Courtesy Story | Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department | 01.30.2019
Time and space to maneuver saves lives on the modern battlefield. More information, with more time to decide, allows commanders to make quick decisions that protect warfighters and allow them to accomplish their mission. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department recently held an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) to test technologies that......
Courtesy Story | Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Chemical and Biological Technologies Department | 01.30.2019
Quickly and safely decontaminating mission-critical equipment from Chemical Warfare Agents (CWAs) is a complicated puzzle. Warfighters must piece together chemistry, equipment, resources and logistics — and it must be immediate — in order to ensure combat effectiveness. One way that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chemical and Biological Technologies Department is......
