News Briefs
January 1, 2006
Nuclear terror threats spur treatment studies
Amid growing concern that terrorists may strike with a nuclear weapon instead of a biological one, the government is fast-tracking programs to develop medical countermeasures against radiological and nuclear threats.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has issued more than $47 million for grants, contracts, and interagency agreements as part of a new NIH research program on medical countermeasures against radiological and nuclear threats.
Eight universities or research institutes have received grants to establish Centers for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation. The centers will focus on basic and applied research to develop new products for measuring radiation exposure, to protect against exposure, and to minimize and treat the effects of exposure to a wide range of radioactive compounds. The research centers are being asked to develop biodosimetry devices to measure radiation exposure, therapeutics to treat short-term and long-term symptoms of radiation exposure, as well as products that can prevent or mitigate the effects of radiation exposure.
Funding for the centers totals about $28.7 million for fiscal year 2005. NIAID plans to fund the centers for five years.
In addition, the University of Maryland School of Medicine has received a $9.3 million contract to evaluate promising compounds to prevent, reduce, or treat symptoms of radiation exposure.
NIAID also earmarked funds to support projects focused on protecting the immune system from radiation or restoring the immune system following radiation exposure. Products that provide pre-exposure protection could be used by first responders to prevent bone marrow damage, while post-exposure products would help restore immune system cells that are formed within bone marrow.
The research push comes as reports surface that the United States remains vulnerable to nuclear terror. The Sept. 11 Commission recently used the term "insufficient progress" in assessing the federal government’s efforts to thwart nuclear or radiological terrorism. In a follow-up report into its original inquiry into 9/11, the commission urged the Bush administration to make preventing nuclear terror the "top national security priority."