During this reporting period, the medical community remained focused on the devastating effects of the COVID pandemic, carrying forward lessons learned to help prevent and improve response to future chemical, biological or radiological incidents. At the same time, the evolving threat environment is being fueled by rapid technological advances in areas such as genetic engineering and AI. The need to respond quickly with deployable medical solutions is more critical than at any time in the history of the Nation.
Led by a new director for medical countermeasures hired in this reporting period, NSRI is advancing response through several projects and capabilities. In 2023, NSRI received a $24.5 million contract to continue the development of a prophylactic for acute radiation syndrome. Partnering with industry and academic research and development, an NSRI team is exploring a burn ointment that works well on thermal burns in the civilian sector and could treat both radiation dermatitis and radiation burns for warfighters. Similarly, therapeutic delivery devices built for delivering insulin to diabetic patients could deliver battlefield therapeutics and prophylactics and, in some cases, even replace IVs, reducing incident response time from minutes to seconds.
National reports, such as the Apollo Report published by the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense in January 2021, shed light on important challenges and potential solutions for the military medical community and guide NSRI’s development for future research priorities. NSRI and NU are actively engaged in development efforts to address multiple priorities highlighted in the report, including point-of-need diagnostics, wearable sensors, drug delivery devices and AI-aided development of vaccine candidates.
Looking forward, NSRI’s medical countermeasures focus area will continue to leverage NU core laboratories for drugs, devices and modeling and simulation tools and seek connections with industry to achieve technology transition of potential solutions and modify existing DOD-specific applications.
