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Countering Chemical and Biological Warfare

IndiatimesUpdated on Oct 20, 2013, 22:00 IST

Capability to rapidly identify molecular mechanisms for how threat agents, drugs, biologics, chemicals affect cells could provide deterrence and enable production of defences...

Countering Chemical and Biological Warfare



That capability gap leaves U.S. forces vulnerable, so DARPA’s new five-year program, Rapid Threat Assessment (RTA), sets an aggressive new goal for researchers: develop methods and technologies that can, within 30 days of exposure, map the complete molecular mechanism through which a threat agent alters biochemical processes in human cells. The developed technologies must identify the cellular components and mechanistic events that take place over a range of times, from the milliseconds immediately following exposure to the threat agent, to the days over which alterations in gene and protein expression might occur. The molecular mechanism must also account for molecular translocations and interactions that cross the cell membrane, cytoplasm and nucleus.

“Understanding the molecular mechanism of a given threat agent would provide researchers the framework with which to develop medical countermeasures and mitigate threats,” said Barry Pallotta, DARPA program manager. “If the RTA program is successful, potential adversaries would have to reassess the cost-benefit analysis of using chemical or biological weapons against U.S. forces that have credible medical defences.”   



Countering Chemical and Biological Warfare



While providing a framework for the development of medical countermeasures to chemical and biological weapons, successful RTA technologies would also be readily applicable to drug development and treatments for disease. In both cases, detailed knowledge of molecular mechanism is one of the ingredients that enable new drugs to win approval or diseases to be treated.  

DARPA hopes to pair technologies developed during the RTA program with its Microphysiological Systems program, which is building “human-on-a-chip” technology. By introducing threat agents or proposed countermeasures to the human-on-a-chip system, researchers could observe which human cell types are affected, and use RTA technologies to elucidate the specific molecular mechanisms in the affected cells.

Source: DARPA

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