MEDICAL BIOLOGICAL DEFENSE (ATD)

Abstract

This project (TB3) funds preclinical development of vaccines, therapeutic drugs, and diagnostic capabilities to provide safe and effective medical defense against validated biological threat agents including bacteria, toxins, and viruses. Innovative biotechnology approaches to advance medical systems designed to rapidly identify, diagnose, prevent, and treat disease due to exposure to biological threat agents will be evaluated. Entry of candidate vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostic technologies into advanced development is facilitated by the development of technical data packages that support the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug (IND) licensure processes, DoD acquisition regulations, and the oversight of Phase 1 clinical trials in accordance with FDA guidelines. Categories of this project include biological defense capability areas such as Pretreatments, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics. Pretreatment efforts conduct research and development (R&D) of promising vaccines, medications, and technologies provided prior to potential exposure to biological agents. The goal is to reduce or to entirely prevent adverse effects of exposure. Diagnostic efforts are aimed at screening procedures and analytical methods to verify exposure and determine the effects of exposure to biological warfare (BW) agents. Therapeutic efforts provide medical solutions to sustain and protect the Warfighter in biological environments. Specifically, therapeutic efforts are aimed at developing medical countermeasures to treat exposure to biological threats such as bacterial (plague, anthrax, glanders), viral (smallpox, encephalitic alphaviruses), and toxin (ricin, botulinum neurotoxin, staphyloccal enterotoxin) agents. This project also includes efforts such as the Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative (TMTI). The Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative (TMTI) was launched to respond to the threat of emerging or intentionally bioengineered biological threats. TMTI's mission is to protect the Warfighter from genetically engineered biological threats by providing a rapid response capability from identification of pathogens to the delivery of medical countermeasures. This mission is accomplished through two main efforts: 1) developing broad spectrum (multi-agent) therapeutics against BW agents (e.g, one drug that treats multiple agents); and 2) developing platform technologies to assist in the rapid development of medical countermeasures (MCMs) in response to BW agents (e.g, developing new and innovative ways to mass produce drugs in the event of a biological incident).

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Document Details

Document Type
Project
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2011
Source ID
TB3_0603384BP_3_0400_PB_2011

Tags

Readers

  • Critical Infrastructure Protection in CBRN and WMD Threats.
  • Infectious Disease/Epidemiology

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biotechnology - Cancer Biotech

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