The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center has developed a new biological self-test kit that can detect exposure to biological agents in the field. Known as SmartCAR, the device uses a colorimetric assay, very much like a home pregnancy test strip, to identify the presence of a pathogen of concern such as ricin, anthrax, or plague.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to revise its Risk Management Program regulations to improve chemical process safety, assist local emergency authorities in planning for and responding to accidents, and improve public awareness of chemical hazards at regulated sources.
A new report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) describes how researchers analyzed a major 2011 Texas wildland fire using a rigorous and scientifically based post-fire data collection approach, a system they believe will lead to improved defensive measures and strategies for significantly reducing structural damage and property loss.
Collaboration between Texas Children's Hospital and Houston Methodist Hospital has resulted in the release of the country's first hospital-based rapid tests for the Zika virus. This sponsored program was designed to facilitate rapid development of tests for virus detection in a large metropolitan area.
R3 Technologies and a group of small businesses are developing a way to prevent suicide attacks by detecting concealed bombs before they go off. Needing more technical help, the group turned to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program, which pairs entrepreneurs with scientists and engineers at Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.
In 2014, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released a document designed to help strengthen cybersecurity at organizations that manage critical national infrastructure such as banking and the energy supply. The Cybersecurity Framework is now a tool used by a wide variety of public and private companies and organizations, from retail chains to state governments.
Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research started vaccinations in the first clinical trial to test the safety and immune response in people of a vaccine candidate to prevent Middle East respiratory syndrome, known as MERS. MERS is a severe respiratory disease similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome, more commonly known as SARS.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced that Emergard, the company's ruggedized, military-grade auto-injector platform, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense and Battelle to be tested against and developed to U.S. military specifications as a platform for nerve agent antidote delivery.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have collaborated to design and implement a training program to cross educate sponsors, scientists, veterinarians, quality assurance personnel, regulators, reviewers, and policy-makers to enable the conduct of regulated studies product approval via the Animal Rule.
An experimental method developed by federal and university researchers appears capable of detecting the stealthy culprit Lyme bacteria at the earliest time of infection, when currently available tests are often still negative.
The team suggests the approach might also be useful for early detection of other elusive bacterial infections
