Biological Technologies Office

DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office develops capabilities that embrace the unique properties of biology—adaptation, replication, complexity—and applies those features to revolutionize how the United States defends the homeland and prepares and protects its Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. BTO is helping the Department of Defense to counter novel forms of bioterrorism, deploy innovative biological countermeasures to protect U.S. forces, and accelerate warfighter readiness and overmatch to confront adversary threats. BTO Leadership, Program Managers, and Staff BTO Capability Areas Detect and characterize any threat, any time, anywhere Enable rapid, scalable protection and countermeasures Revolutionize warfighter readiness, resilience, and recovery Enhance training effectiveness and overmatch Develop non-traditional platforms and capabilities Programs Opportunities To sign up for BTO News Updates, please e-mail darpabto@darpa.mil Highlights DARPA's Biological Technologies Office hosted the “Biotech Startups of the Future“ meeting September 13-14, 2017, at the Quadrus Center in Menlo Park, California. BTO Lays Foundation for a New Generation of Biotech Ventures Biotech is emerging as a breakthrough opportunity space that is ripe for fresh collaboration among DARPA, the nation's top researchers, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs. BTO Officewide Innovation in Biotechnology BTO’s “open” BAA offers a mechanism for researchers to reach DARPA with an idea that may fall outside of BTO’s current priorities, but that the proposer feels could be valuable to national security. DARPA and the Brain Initiative DARPA and the Brain Initiative DARPA supports the Brain Initiative through a number of programs that are developing novel neurotechnologies, enabling new therapies, and advancing understanding of brain structure and function. TAGS | Agency | Bio-complexity | Bio-systems | Disease | Health | Med-Devices | Syn-Bio | OPPORTUNITIES To view a selective listing of solicitations posted by this office please visit the BTO Opportunities page, where you can further sort by topic. PROGRAMSCollapse List View 10 | View 50 | View All ADvanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness (ADAPTER) DR. PAUL SHEEHAN Warfighters are travelers, and the bodily inconveniences suffered by travelers, such as jet lag and traveler's diarrhea, can seriously degrade operational readiness and even determine mission success or failure. To maximize warfighter performance, the ADvanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness (ADAPTER) program will develop systems that provide warfighters greater control over their own physiology. More | Countermeasures | Disease | Health | Med-Devices | Therapy | Advanced Plant Technologies (APT) DR. BLAKE BEXTINE The Advanced Plant Technologies (APT) program seeks to develop plants capable of serving as next-generation, persistent, ground-based sensor technologies to protect deployed troops and the homeland by detecting and reporting on chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) threats. Such biological sensors would be effectively energy-independent, increasing their potential for wide distribution, while reducing risks associated with deployment and maintenance of traditional sensors. These technologies could also potentially support humanitarian operations by, for example, detecting unexploded ordnance in post-conflict settings. More | Bio-complexity | Bio-systems | Sensors | Syn-Bio | Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE) DR. SETH COHEN Water transport is as mission-critical and as logistically challenging as fuel transport for the U.S. military. Meeting deployed military water needs requires equipment resources, consumes fuel, and endangers personnel. The goal of DARPA’s Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE) program is to provide potable freshwater for a range of military, stabilization, and humanitarian needs through the development of small, lightweight, low-powered, distributable systems that extract potable water from the atmosphere to meet the drinking needs of individuals and groups, even in extremely arid climates. More | Decentralization | Logistics | Materials | Stabilization | SWAP | Autonomous Diagnostics to Enable Prevention and Therapeutics (ADEPT) DR. AMY JENKINS The Autonomous Diagnostics to Enable Prevention and Therapeutics (ADEPT) program supports individual troop readiness and total force health protection by developing technologies to rapidly identify and respond to threats posed by natural and engineered diseases and toxins. A subset of ADEPT technologies specifically support use by personnel with minimal medical training, delivering centralized laboratory capabilities even in the low-resource environments typical of many military operations. The program is part of a portfolio of DARPA-funded research aimed at providing options for preempting or mitigating constantly evolving infectious disease threats. More | COVID-19 | Disease | Health | Therapy | Battlefield Medicine DR. KERRI DUGAN The Battlefield Medicine program supports military readiness in far-forward deployed settings by overcoming logistical obstacles to manufacturing and delivery of urgently needed pharmaceutical products used to treat emerging threats. More | Disease | Health | Therapy | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Last SIMILARLY TAGGED CONTENT Detect and characterize any threat, any time, anywhere Biological Technologies Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies (DIGET) Proposers Day PReemptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements (PREPARE) Proposers Day Episode 24: Preventing Pandemics LEADERSHIP Dr. Kerri Dugan Acting Office Director Dr. Blake Bextine Acting Deputy Director PROGRAM MANAGERS Dr. Lori Adornato Dr. Anne Cheever Dr. Linda Chrisey Dr. Rohit Chitale CDR Jean-Paul Chretien Dr. Seth Cohen Dr. Al Emondi Dr. Amy Jenkins Dr. Tristan McClure-Begley Dr. Paul Sheehan Dr. Eric Van Gieson ALL OFFICE STAFF PRINT