Author Archives: G

food security–availability, utilization, and stability: study report

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The purpose of the study proposed by the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity  was to develop new measures that assess the availability, utilization, and stability of food security, in addition to the USDA’s Household Food Security Survey Measure (HFSSM).

The study consisted of a formative phase involving an expert advisory group, literature scans, and interviews with individuals experiencing food insecurity.

From April to June 2021, the new measures were tested in five states (California, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, and Washington) in a pilot survey that included scales and items for validation, demographic questions, and the new measures, which were perceived limited availability, utilization barriers, and food insecurity stability. Continue reading →

The evolution process of Military Medicine

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Military personnel face unique health risks due to their occupational conditions.

The field of Military Medicine has emerged as an academic discipline to address the healthcare needs of military forces. The profession of Military Medicine originated during modern warfare in the 20th century, and due to increasing global trends in war, terrorism, and natural disasters, Military Medicine is undergoing an evolution process. This review study aims to investigate the role and place of Military Medicine in Iran, including related approaches, medical curricula, and the priority of developing specialized academic subfields of Military Medicine. Continue reading →

The special biocontainment stretchers for Italy

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Credits Elitaliana S.p.A. – The project is the result of the collaboration of Eng. Giovanni Niro of Elitaliana, Nicola Campani CEO of Northwall and the engineers Alessandro Ranieri Davoli and Achille Cester.

In its moment of maximum expansion, the new Coronavirus pandemic hit hard the Italian health system: in March 2020 the shortage of high biocontainment stretchers, led to great trouble HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Services).

But new opportunities arise from the health crisis: at the end of September, two Italian companies collaborated with Isovac Products LLC, a private US company in Illinois, to create innovative airborne biocontainment stretchers. These are: Continue reading →

Artificial Intelligence Key to Fighting Pandemics

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Artificial intelligence is proving to be an integral part of the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and may also aid in battling future pandemics, according to researchers from a high-profile AI commission.

“The early months of the pandemic response suggest that technology — some of it underpinned by artificial intelligence — offers powerful potential for detecting and containing the virus, driving biomedical innovation — including for vaccines and therapeutics — and improving response and recovery,” said a new white paper by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Continue reading →

New Projects to Accelerate Innovation and Growth in the Biomanufacturing Sector

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of eight projects totaling over $5 million to conduct research and development (R&D) needed to accelerate the US biomanufacturing sector. Part of the Agile BioFoundry (ABF) consortium, these projects will leverage National Laboratory capabilities to address challenges in biomanufacturing.

DOE has selected the following projects: Continue reading →

NATO ON COVID-19: Alliance scientists respond to the challenge

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Scientists across 
Allied and Partner Nations
 have responded to the challenge set 
by the NATO Chief Scientist 
to identify solutions to some 
of the most pressing scientific 
challenges posed by COVID-19.

Over 40 responses to the Challenge were received. Amongst the most impactful of the responses that are being taken forward in NATO’s collaborative programme of Science & Technology are those that are investigating:

  • Better understanding disinformation about the pandemic, and how to counter it;
  • Keeping Armed Forces healthy during a pandemic relief operation;
  • Applying NATO scientists’ analytic tools to planning for future pandemics;
  • Improved use of technology to train military leaders in pandemic relief operations;
  • Lessons learnt from COVID-19 for National Defence Systems;
  • The ethical dimension of military support to pandemic relief operations.

Many of the studies are due to deliver results within months.

NATO Chief Scientist, Dr Bryan Wells said: “This is a tremendous response from the Alliance network of scientists, showing how they are responding rapidly to the challenges of COVID-19 and bringing their scientific expertise to bear on this vital task”.

Other scientific responses to the pandemic are in preparation already or will be investigated, including using the expertise of NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE).

The challenge was set to the Alliance network of 6,000 scientists – the largest such network in the world – and to NATO’s own laboratory in La Spezia. The challenge focused on solutions for virus detection, improved situational awareness, resilience and the post-COVID-19 future.

US DoD : $27M Contract to SAB Biotherapeutics to Develop Novel Rapid Response Capability

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SAB Biotherapeutics has developed a first-of-its-kind therapeutic engine—unleashing the power of the body’s native biological defense system to produce immunotherapies that truly match and overpower the complexity, diversity, and evolution of human disease.

This new class of immunotherapies opens the door to new medicines that are safer, more effective, and longer lasting than current antibody therapies.

SAB Biotherapeutics (SAB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, advancing a new class of immunotherapies leveraging the native human immune response, announced today it has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to develop and test a Rapid Response Antibody Program, valued at up to $27 million.

This progressive and competitive, three-stage, multi-year contract calls for the development of a state-of-the-art, pharmaceutical platform technology capable of rapidly and reliably producing antibody-based Medical Countermeasures (MCM) for biological threats. The goal of the program, awarded through DoD’s Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) Joint Project Lead CBRND Enabling Biotechnologies (JPL-CBRND-EB), is to accelerate the delivery of potent, human, polyclonal antibody therapeutics to address known and novel emerging biodefense (viral, bacterial or toxin) threats.

Driven by advanced genetic engineering and antibody science, SAB has developed the DiversitAb™ platform to naturally and rapidly produce large amounts of targeted human antibodies, without human donors.

Stage 1 of the contract, totaling $3.4 million, began in September of 2019 and continues through May 2020; demonstrating the platform’s potential to meet the DoD’s requirements for producing safe and efficacious cGMP material in less than six months at current scale. Stage 2 increases the scale of production to meet the DoD’s target number of doses of prototype drug product and fully-implemented demonstration of readiness. Stage 3 calls for production of an antibody product to an unknown threat, selected by the DoD in a “live fire” exercise as well as clinical activity through a Phase 1 trial.

“We have an obligation to apply our proprietary capabilities to produce high-potency immunotherapies to virtually any target on a large scale, to a rapid response capacity,” said Eddie J. Sullivan, PhD, SAB Biotherapeutics president, CEO and co-founder. “Our therapies leverage the native immune response thereby providing a highly-specific match against the complexity, diversity and mutation of disease.”

The company has developed more than a dozen effective antibodies from its DiversitAb platform in response to infectious disease targets during outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, Dengue and others.

“For a new disease target, we’re able to move quickly to a proof-of-concept in about 90 days,” added Sullivan.

“Infectious disease has been a strategic proving ground for our platform,” added Sullivan. “If we can perform under the most demanding of scenarios to challenging targets, it builds confidence that translates to a broader array of therapeutic programs,” Sullivan said.

SAB is also advancing a therapeutic pipeline including potential treatments for autoimmune diseases, inflammation, infectious diseases and cancers. The company recently entered a research collaboration with CSL Behring to explore new innovative immunotherapies, including human immunoglobulins.

“This initiative is solidifying a place for targeted human polyclonal antibodies in the immunotherapy space, showcasing the power of the native human biological immune response,” added Sullivan. “More importantly, we’re providing an innovative new tool in the medical countermeasures toolbox.”

Source: SAB Biotherapeutics

DOD Sustainment and Acquisition Leaders Brief

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Ellen M. Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment; Jennifer Santos, deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy and Kim Herrington, director of pricing and contracting, hold a conference on the Defense Department’s COVID-19 acquisition policy.

The brief is mainly focussed on the relations between the DoD and the Industrial Base to react to the COVID-19.

After the introduction, very interesting question and answer section:

Link to the brief (youtube) will be added soon

Military stands up COVID Support Force

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The UK Defence Secretary announces new measures to put service personnel and Reservists on standby to support public services in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Up to 10,000 personnel will be placed at a higher readiness, so they are able to assist with supporting public services. This is on top of the 10,000 already held at higher readiness.

Photographer- Cpl Andy Reddy; Crown Copyright

These measures are part of prudent contingency planning to respond in a timely way to any request from other governments departments or civil authorities for support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far, the military have assisted with repatriation flights from China and Japan. They are also providing specialist military planners to Local Resilience Forums who are providing support to public services, local authorities and emergency services in preparing their response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Today, the MOD can announce further preparation ready to support public services if required:

  • 150 military personnel will be trained to drive oxygen tankers in order to support the NHS if required. They will begin training on Monday.
  • measures have been taken to enable the call out of Reservists, should they be required to join the response effort
  • scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) are supporting Public Health England’s effort to understand the virus and tackle the spread.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “The men and women of our armed forces stand ready to protect Britain and her citizens from all threats, including COVID-19. The unique flexibility and dedication of the services means that we are able to provide assistance across the whole of society in this time of need.”

“From me downwards the entirety of the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces are dedicated to getting the nation through this global pandemic.”

There are well-rehearsed mechanisms in place for the military to provide support to civil authorities in times of need. Most recently the military has been called on to support the government’s response to flooding.

Defence is fully engaged with other government departments, the devolved administrations and local authorities to establish how best it can support over the coming weeks and months.

The Standing Joint Command will be the Command and Control Structure for the COVID Support Force, which represents the MOD’s contribution to the government response.

Major General Charlie Stickland Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff Operations and Commitments said:

“Putting more personnel at a higher state of readiness and having our Reserves on standby gives us greater flexibility to support public services as and when they require our assistance.”

“The COVID Support Force, potentially drawing upon our highly skilled scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory or oxygen tanker drivers, will form part of a whole force effort to support the country during its time of need. Our servicemen and women are committed to maintain our operational output and delivering any support the government requires.”

Source: Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)