|
Monday, August 13
7:30-8:20 am Registration and Morning Coffee
KEYNOTE SESSION:
IMPLEMENTING TECHNOLOGIES IN REAL WORLD SETTINGS
|
|
8:20 Chairperson’s Opening Comments
Steven Buchsbaum, Ph.D., Senior Program Officer, Global Health Technologies, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
|
|
|
8:30 S&T Challenges to Develop Operational Systems
Starnes Walker, Ph.D., Director of Research, Science & Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security
|
|
DHS S&T activities and concerns in Biodefense Systems Integration will be discussed. Emphasis will be on minimizing size, weight, and power consumption of required sensors and support devices. Creating the most realistic environment for qualifying systems, including test simulants and test and evaluation strategies will be covered as well. Current and future technology needs will also be discussed.
|
|
|
9:00 The Department of Defense Chemical Biological Defense Program (CBDP):
Developing Capabilities in Support of National Strategies
Mr. Jean D. Reed, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense and Chemical Demilitarization Programs
|
|
The Department of Defense is developing an integrated portfolio of capabilities to counter threats from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. The diversity of CBRN threats demands that capabilities be developed to protect against known threats today as well as emerging threats in the future. This presentation will address the various national strategies that are supported by the CBDP, cooperative initiatives with international, interagency, and industry partners, key capabilities that are fielded today, and technology thrusts that will ensure the men and women of the military are provided state-of-the-art capabilities through the far-term.
|
|
|
9:30 Challenges in Developing & Deploying New Detection Technologies
John Vitko, Jr., Ph.D., Director, Chemical and Biological Defense Division, Department of Homeland Security
|
|
While there is an urgent need for detection systems that cover a broader range of agents with greater sensitivity, specificity and response, there are also a myriad of other systems considerations that any candidate system must meet. What are the national and local architectures for using these systems? What are the concepts of operation for use and for timely resolution of ‘positives’? What are the user considerations and requirements? How are these systems to be validated, piloted, manufactured and sustained in the field? The impact of these considerations on technology development will be illustrated with specific examples drawn from the experiences of the DHS Chemical and Biological Defense Program.
|
10:00 Coffee Break
|
|
10:45 Considerations for Emergency Preparedness
Jerome A. Donlon, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Science Advisor, Office of Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures, Department of Health and Human Services
|
|
The presentation will cover an overview of the strategic issues considered in developing plans for medical countermeasures to prepare for public health emergencies. The discussion will take into consideration the directives of the Project BioShield Act of 2004 and the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act of 2006, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise Strategy and Implementation Plans and apply those directives to specific acquisition, deployment and use considerations for the Strategic National Stockpile formulary.
|
|
|
11:15 Utilizing New Biotechnologies to Develop Broadspectrum Countermeasures Against Conventional, Emerging, and Engineered Biological Threats
Darrell R. Galloway, Ph.D., CAPT USNR, Acting Director, Chem-Bio, Defense Threat Reduction Agency
(DTRA)
|
|
|
11:45 Defending THE ICON
Lieutenant Charles Guddemi, United States Park Police, Station Commander, Statue of Liberty N.M./Ellis Island Immigration Museum |
|
Lessons learned from technologies deployed at the Statue of Liberty N.M./Ellis Island will be discussed.
|
12:15 pm Luncheon Workshop (Sponsorship Available)
or Lunch on Your Own
PROTECTIVE COUNTERMEASURES
|
|
1:30 Chairperson’s Comments
John Vitko, Jr., Ph.D., Director, Chemical and Biological Defense Division, Department of Homeland Security (invited)
|
|
|
1:40 Pentagon Shield and Urban Shield: Archetypes for Real-Time Biodefense
Detection and Protection
Mr. Paul Benda, Director, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Directorate, Pentagon Force Protection Agency, United States Department of Defense
|
|
Charged with protecting the workforce of the Pentagon and delegated facilities throughout the National Capital Region, the CBRN Directorate of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA) is implementing a Detect-to-Protect capability providing real-time detection and protection of the Pentagon Reservation from internal and external chemical and biological releases. The Pentagon Shield program is predicated upon a tiered sensor strategy linking increasing sensor sensitivity and confidence to mitigate actions of greater impact and visibility. The Urban Shield program is an extension of the Pentagon Shield external detection paradigm and this zonal system architecture will be extended to provide unprecedented city-wide protection via partnerships with local municipalities. The presentation will highlight PFPA-CBRN’s unique systems approach to biodefense.
|
|
|
2:10 From Development to Products
Marilyn Ripin, Ph.D., Vice President, Business Development, Smiths Detection
|
|
Bringing a product to market is a road with many challenges. Some of these challenges are unique when developing products for the military and civilian customers in the US Government.
|
|
2:40 Real-Time Biological-Agent Sensors
Thomas H. Jeys, Ph.D., Senior Staff, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Labs
|
|
Early detection of the presence of aerosolized biological agents is an important component in the defense against these agents. Because of the wide range of possible attack scenarios and attack responses there is also a wide range of detector requirements. The metrics and requirements of real-time biological agent sensors, along with examples of such sensors and how these sensors fit into a larger bio-defense system, will be discussed.
|
|
|
|
 |
3:10 An Integrated Approach to Medical Countermeasure Development
Robert V. House, MSPH, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer,
DynPort Vaccine Company LLC, A CSC Company
|
|
Successful development of medical countermeasures for biological, chemical and radiological threats is a complex process with much associated risk. Mitigation of this risk requires flexibility at all stages of development, which is best addressed in a virtual, systems integration approach encompassing discovery, manufacturing, testing, animal modeling, clinical trials and
bioinformatics. |
|
|
|
3:40 Poster Session with Refreshments and Exhibit Viewing
ADVANCEMENTS IN RAPID BIODEFENSE COUNTERMEASURES
4:10 Chairperson’s Comments
Kenton L. Lohman, Ph.D., Senior Biotechnology Advisor, Midwest Research Institute - National Capital Region Division
4:15 Genomics, Novel Threat Agent Detection and Rapid Countermeasure Development
Timothy Read, Ph.D., Head, Genomics Group, Biological Defense Research Directorate, Naval Medical Research Center (tentative)
Technologies now exist for very rapid, accurate whole genome sequencing of microorganisms. Therefore, any future novel emerging disease agent is likely to be sequenced very shortly after isolation. The sequence opens the door for rapid in silico design of detection and diagnostic assays and countermeasures. However, accurate genomic surveys of natural microbiota are essential to the optimization of these processes.
4:30 A Rapid PCR Device for Instantaneous Bio-Aerosol Agent Detection System
Joel Grover, Ph.D., CEO, Molecular Diagnostics, Thermal Gradient
The Instantaneous Bio-Aerosol Agent Detection System requires a very fast and highly specific confirmation system to identify agents that might be used in an airborne attack. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate has chosen to support development of the Thermal Gradient PCR thermal-cycling device as a key component in such a system. Phase I testing has shown amplification of up to two decades per minute with simple, re-usable devices made with mass production techniques. Devices are small and entirely passive, and are utilized in compact, simple units with no moving parts under static temperature conditions. Within bio-defense, in addition to sentry-type systems such as IBADS, the technology is also suitable for small, hand-carried instruments owing to its low power usage and simplicity of operation. Outside of bio-defense it enables for the first time the development of fully automated, menu driven DNA testing systems for diagnostics and other applications.
4:45 Re-Sequencing Microarrays Design for Pathogen Detection
Baochuan Lin, Ph.D., Research Biologist, Naval Research Laboratory
For diagnostic organism detection, all nucleic-acid based detection methods face requirements to choose regions that provide complete coverage of all possible variants of a target while not responding to non-target material. Primer design and amplification techniques are integral to meeting these requirements, although what role they play differs depending on the detection method (false positive and negative are inevitable sometimes). Our group has adapted re-sequencing microarray technology and demonstrated their great potential for simultaneously detecting bacterial, viral pathogens and virulence markers. Our initial work has caused us to understand that the capabilities and requirements of probes for this method differ markedly from other microarray-based systems.
5:00 Field-Hardened Instrumentation for Integrated DNA Extraction, Amplification and Sequencing of Pathogens in Environmental and Clinical Samples
Mr. Paul Pyzowski, Vice-President, Government Affairs, Network Biosystems
The ability to rapidly perform DNA sequencing and fragment sizing from environmental samples in a field setting would offer tremendous advantages in responding to viral and bacterial threat agents. Similarly, there is significant value in the ability to rapidly identify known and novel emerging infectious agents from tissue samples collected at hospitals, airports, and border crossings. The Genebench-FX™ system developed by Network Biosystems is the first field-hardened DNA sequencing system designed specifically for security, biodefense, and law enforcement use. The first generation instrument, Genebench-FX™ Series 100, has been validated and deployed in a mobile lab that performs DNA analysis at crime scenes. The current system provides STR or sequence results following conventional DNA extraction and amplification. NetBio’s focus is to develop a next-generation instrument that fully integrates DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing in under two hours. Implementing DNA sequencing in the field puts tremendous demands on the system for robustness, reliability, ease-of-use, and speed. Our approach is based on the combination of novel microfluidic biochip and instrumentation technologies. Microfluidics provides highly accurate and reproducible separations with better than single-base pair resolution and enables efficient integration of sample preparation steps. The field-based instrument has been designed based on requirements not found in lab-based sequencing, including shock-and-vibration-proof optical detection, consistent operation with wide swings in ambient temperature, and low power consumption.
5:15 Recombinant Antibodies for Biodefense
Peter Pavlik, Ph.D., Project Leader, Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Much effort has been put into the development of different biosensor platforms. However, every biosensor platform is no better than the technology used for recognition of the infectious agent under consideration. Poorly characterized monoclonal and even polyclonal antibodies are still used today. The last several years, our team at LANL has been building a high-throughput antibody pipeline for production of 1000’s of characterized antibodies against proteins for DOE. With funding from DHS, we modified this pipeline so we can produce antibodies with defined reactivity to pathogens and toxins, which allows predicting reactivity against emerging and engineered pathogens. In my presentation, I will describe the antibody pipeline; automated in vitro selections from diversity libraries under defined conditions, HT screening for antibodies able to distinguish targets that differ only by one amino acid, engineering of antibodies for low picomollar affinity, screening for capture/detection antibody pairs and immuno-PCR assay development. Recombinant antibodies from our pipeline can be screened specifically for and/or be adapted to every biosensor platform available. I will also discuss the possibility of using the pipeline for fast production of neutralizing and therapeutic antibodies for biodefense.
5:30 Networking Reception
6:30 Close of Day One
|
