Award Data

The goal of the project is to develop a handheld instrument that detects, identifies, and categorizes radioactive sources based on gamma, thermal-, and fast-neutron signatures. Existing radioisotope identification devices (RIIDs) are typically biased toward gamma spectroscopy; some instruments may use an additional inefficient neutron counter in form of a He-3 tube. The recent development of mat ...

Recently we have observed a massive outbreak of Ebola virus. This family of virus causes a significant bioterrorism threat due to the high levelof mortality, rate of transmissibility and the lack of an approved vaccine or therapy directed against it. The goal of this proposal is to develop,optimize and scale-up a mammalian cell culture-based bioprocess for the rapid manufacture of an antibody-base ...

DTRA uses High Fidelity Computer Codes (HFCC) to investigate weapon effects and techniques for countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). End-to-end HFCC simulations in support of the DTRA Agent Defeat Warfighter Capability will require calculations including multiple phenomena that occur in vastly different time scales (-sec to hours). As DTRA becomes increasingly reliant on computational mode ...

There are currently no vaccines or therapeutics available for Marburg Virus Disease (MVD). Given the specter of weaponization and the terriblemorbidity and high mortality rate of MVD, this represents a critical threat to the operational readiness of the Warfighter. While traditionalvaccines have proven to be a huge contribution to public health, they do have some limitations especially in the cont ...

Flow Pharma, Inc. is a biotechnology company in the San Francisco Bay Area developing fully synthetic cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)stimulating peptide vaccines for Marburg virus. The FlowVax vaccine platform allows us to create dry powder formulations of biodegradablemicrospheres and TLR adjuvants incorporating class I and class II T cell epitopes. FlowVax vaccines can be designed for delivery by i ...

On this effort Toyon Research Corp. and The Pennsylvania State University are developing deep learning-based algorithms for object recognition and new class discovery in look-down infrared (IR) imagery. Our approach involves the development of a hybrid classifier that exploits both transfer learning and semi-supervised paradigms in order to maintain good generalization accuracy, especially when li ...

For effective protection against radiated threats, it is important to understand not only the physics of the threats, but also to quantify the effects they have on mission-critical electrical systems. Radiated vulnerability and susceptibility testing requires delivery of high peak power and peak electric fields to distant targets. The most practical solution to simulate such environments on large ...

The dual use potential of certain life sciences research has been recognized as an important biosecurity issue for a number of years. Current Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) assessment procedures are pure manual work done by researchers/reviewers trained in the biosecurity domain. Therefore, an automated approach to analyze and identify DURC rapidly and reliably is urgently needed. To address ...

Supercapacitors have attracted considerable recent attentions due to their high-power density, and long cycle life. Unfortunately, the energy density of supercapacitors is too low to meet these applications requiring an energy supply for longer periods (hours or days). Storagenergy Technologies Inc. proposes to develop a superior all solid-state battery (ASSB) fabricated by additive manufacturing ...

Spectral Labs proposes the development of a radiation dosimeter capable of accurately measuring both prompt and residual gamma and neutron particles without saturating at the dose rates expected from a nuclear event. The proposed dosimeter will be capable of live readout but will typically operate in a low power sleep state for extended battery life, and the dosimeter will utilize a well-tested ci ...