Outpacing Infectious Disease
Abstract
Military readiness and national security depend on the health and well-being of military service members. Unfortunately, today's antivirals and vaccines are often circumvented by fast-mutating viruses that evolve to develop drug resistance. Military service members often deploy to areas with such diseases that require new protective measures to maintain readiness. The Outpacing Infectious Disease program is investigating fundamental methods for using biology as a technology to create adaptive therapeutic response mechanisms to outpace viral diseases such as enabling co-evolution and co-transmission of newly developed therapeutics to ultimately outcompete the pathogen. Key advances expected from this research include identifying methods to discover and develop new classes of dynamic therapeutics for fast-mutating viruses. Additionally, methodologies to predict the duration of immune protection are being explored. This approach represents a significant departure from conventional antiviral therapies, which typically rely on static solutions and continuous re-formulation and re-development in attempt to keep pace with emerging strains and disease variants. Advances in this area may be applied to the mitigation of known, new, or emerging diseases that impact military readiness and pose a national security risk as a potential pandemic.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2024
- Source ID
- 36e262d014e6f15ebfdba9d1a01aa7b3