Unconventional Therapeutics
Abstract
(U) This thrust is developing unique and unconventional approaches to ensure that soldiers are protected against a wide variety of naturally occurring, indigenous or engineered threats. Past successes in this effort have come from developing therapeutics that are designed to work against broad classes of pathogens. Work in this area has also uncovered new approaches to therapeutics that, rather than attacking specific pathogens, enhance innate human immune mechanisms against broad classes of pathogens. Integral to these efforts is the development of methods that rapidly identify a broad spectrum of pathogens. Not only will these approaches be more effective against known pathogens, they also promise to offer substantial protection against unknown pathogens including engineered and emerging pathogens from third-world environments. (U) A current emphasis is on the discovery and development of technologies that will allow a rapid response (within weeks) to unanticipated threats, whether they are naturally encountered emerging diseases or agents from intentional attack. This thrust has a goal of radically transforming the protein design process by researching and developing new mathematical and biochemical approaches to the in silico design of proteins with specific functions. This significantly decreases the time needed and increases the probability of success for biological warfare vaccine development. An additional focus is the development of entirely new technologies that will allow the rapid, cost-effective manufacture of complex therapeutic proteins such as monoclonal antibodies and vaccine antigens; these technologies will reduce the time for biologics manufacture from years (or even decades) to only weeks. Leveraging these current and previously proven technologies, such as the Modular IMmune in Vitro Construct (MIMIC) artificial human immune system device, a complementary rapid response to the H1N1 pandemic is being accelerated. This includes identifying the symptoms and progression, predicting and diagnosing exposed individuals, developing a safe and effective treatment, and demonstrating technologies for mass-producing low cost vaccines.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2011
- Source ID
- 1ea6fc76d6483fd047e7b7f43d2381e6