{"id":18841,"date":"2020-04-07T15:00:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2020\/04\/07\/how-past-investments-positioned-darpa-to-take-on-coronavirus\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:02:35","slug":"how-past-investments-positioned-darpa-to-take-on-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/industry\/2020\/04\/07\/how-past-investments-positioned-darpa-to-take-on-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"How past investments positioned DARPA to take on coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three years ago, scientists at the Pentagon\u2019s future-leaning research branch started work on a program aimed at preventing pandemics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are halfway through their projected timeline, a pandemic has swept across the globe, with the most reported cases of COVID-19 coming from the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the military organization that typically focuses on projects to address future threats at least five to 10 years off finds itself sprinting to develop diagnostic tools and treatment for the new coronavirus pandemic, and using technology it\u2019s invested in over the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in the next two weeks, one DARPA program hopes to have developed a test that can detect if a patient is infected with coronavirus and can observe changes in human cells to identify if a patient is infected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou live your life thinking this could happen, but when it does happen it\u2019s a bit surreal,\u201d said Amy Jenkins, a program manager in DARPA\u2019s Biological Technologies Office. \u201cMost of us, we haven\u2019t had a chance to really breathe and really think about what\u2019s happening right now because we\u2019ve been trying to prepare for this. But it\u2019s all a bit surreal that it\u2019s actually happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The early days<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, came to DARPA\u2019s attention when the epicenter was limited to Wuhan, China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis outbreak was very much on our radar in December when we were just getting initial reports from China that there was a novel pneumonia unrelated to influenza occurring,\u201d Jenkins said in an interview with C4ISRNET. \u201cWe made the decision as a program to start investigating this once we had the first U.S. case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That initial U.S. case was confirmed Jan. 21<\/a>, but the first sample arrived at DARPA\u2019s partner labs during the first week of March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Microscopic view of Coronavirus, a pathogen that attacks the respiratory tract. Analysis and test, experimentation. Sars. 3d render (Naeblys\/Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, however, Jenkins\u2019 office worked with DARPA\u2019s partner labs so scientists could begin testing when the first sample arrived. They also researched the virus\u2019 genetic sequence and how it related to SARS, another respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus that killed about 800 people from 2002-2004. DARPA\u2019s partner labs are AbCellera Biologics, AstraZeneca, Vanderbilt and Duke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a necessary pause,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cIf we had had samples the last week of January, we could\u2019ve started immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenkins, along with Brad Ringeisen, office director of DARPA\u2019s Biological Technologies Office, said the biggest challenge the agency has encountered is access to samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating to know that we have the tools and the technology,\u201d Ringeisen said. \u201cBut those tools and technology do us no good until we get the samples.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the office has worked with the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Defense Department, and several other entities to get the samples it needs for rapid research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past investment, present payoffs<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the early 2010s, DARPA has invested in a new type of vaccine technology \u2014 nucleic acid vaccines \u2014 which use the human body as its \u201cbioreactor\u201d to create the antibodies needed for immunity. DARPA funded this type of vaccine because traditional vaccine manufacturing is cumbersome, Jenkins said, and can take up to 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DARPA\u2019s efforts on new mRNA vaccines have perhaps led to the best chance of effective immunization against COVID-19. This is in part thanks to a $25 million grant it awarded in 2013 to biotech company Moderna<\/a> to manufacture mRNA vaccines to protect against a \u201cwide range of known and unknown emerging infectious diseases and engineered biological threats.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, a Moderna mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 is undergoing a clinical trial <\/a>with the NIH. DARPA leaders are confident it will be deemed safe \u201cbecause of some of our past investments that we\u2019ve done on similar products for different diseases,\u201d Ringeisen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because there\u2019s no RNA immunization for COVID-19 approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Jenkins said that DARPA has also realigned its efforts to work on traditional vaccine manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the role DARPA has been investing in, but it is the most applicable to this outbreak,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, DARPA signed the first contracts for the Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) program, a project that aims to create a \u201cmedical countermeasure\u201d for a pandemic disease within 60 days of that pathogen\u2019s identification using the mRNA vaccine technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Military Sealift Command hospital ship Comfor escorted by U.S. Coast Guard, New York Police Department and New York Fire Department assets as the ship arrives in in New York City, March 30, 2020. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Cory J. Mendenhall)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The platform relies on ongoing research into rapid antibody-discovery technology that must be linked with tech able to quickly manufacture those antibodies. The rapid antibody-discovery technologies are \u201chardened off,\u201d Jenkins said, meaning that their focus is now on manufacturing the antibodies, a process that can be done in the human body, as described earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven this outbreak, what we are doing now is actually utilizing those rapid discovery platforms to find \u2026 antibodies that target the SARS-2 coronavirus,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The P3 program is expected to be completed in 2022 or 2023, Jenkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DARPA\u2019s coronavirus effort also includes creating a rapid detection and diagnostic platform through its Epigenetic CHaracterization and Observation, or ECHO program. According to Ringeisen, DARPA hypothesized years ago that infectious diseases left “epigenetic marks\u201d on human cells, or chemical changes in cells that indicate exposure to toxins, much like epigenetic marks left in smokers. In this test, medical professionals wouldn\u2019t be looking for the virus, but rather for the marks indicating the host\u2019s response to the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese marks are most likely being made almost immediately after the body is exposed to the virus,\u201d Ringeisen said. In addition, they could show up well before the virus would be evident in a nasal swab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, blood would be drawn and then scientists could look for the marks. DARPA was able to focus the ECHO program to respond to the new coronavirus, Ringeisen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ringeisen told C4ISRNET that he thought that test could be a \u201cpowerful tool,\u201d especially as \u201cwe talk about going back to the workforce and who might be more vulnerable or less vulnerable to being exposed to the disease.\u201d He hopes this program will produce the epigenetic signature in the next 10-12 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ringeisen said DARPA is targeting August 2020 as its goal for getting the FDA\u2019s approval of that test. The test would be an important service in case there\u2019s a second wave of the virus in the fall this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another diagnostic test, called Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies, which used computers and algorithms to identify genetic codes, was able to uncover specific genetic codes associated with the new coronavirus. An FDA-approved version of that test could also improve testing for the virus. Ringeisen said that DARPA was able to fast-track that project as well, and the agency is aiming for FDA approval in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investments in these programs over the last decades has accelerated DARPA\u2019s near-term work on the current pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy having these projects already going, it\u2019s very, very easy for us to sort of plug in pathogen \u2018X\u2019 into these projects,\u201d Ringeisen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to do more research, scientists across the United States are urging people who have recovered from the virus to donate blood so more samples become available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a U.S. government, we have a dearth of samples,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cWe do not have all of the samples we need, but it is not as extreme as a bottleneck at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update: This story has been updated with clarification from a DARPA spokesperson that the first test samples arrived at DARPA\u2019s P3 partner labs, not directly to DARPA. The spokesperson also clarified that DARPA\u2019s partner labs prepared their labs for the arrival of the samples, not DARPA, which doesn\u2019t have labs.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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