SwRI creating chemical, biological threat mitigation decision support tool for U.S. military

SAN ANTONIO – January 28, 2025 – Southwest Research Institute has formed an interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, chemists and biologists to develop software to help the United States Department of Defense (DOD) identify and respond to chemical and biological threats.

Through a contract with the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC), SwRI will develop a Risk Evaluation & Medical Decision Efficacy (REMEDY) tool to help make agile medical decisions, about countermeasures and other actions to address a danger or threat.

“The end goal of REMEDY is to help the U.S. military evaluate life-saving drugs, treatments and strategies in response to chemical and biological threats,” said Prativa Hartnett, a research computer scientist in SwRI’s Intelligent Systems Division who leads the project.

Chemical and biological threats can severely affect personnel, infrastructure and national security. These threats require specialized consideration to achieve adequate defensive measures. When evaluating the risk, planners must consider force vulnerabilities, operational consequences, defensive countermeasures and other factors.“ We aim to give military planners faster reaction times, so they can rapidly answer questions like, ‘what medical countermeasures are available and what are the risks?’” said Hakima Ibaroudene, manager of SwRI’s Bioinformatics Section. “In complex scenarios, the ideal medications might not be accessible in all regions, or suitable storage facilities for certain vaccines may be lacking. REMEDY will help evaluate these challenges and propose alternative solutions.”

SwRI’s Intelligent Systems Division will develop the software while the Institute’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division will evaluate chemical threats and mitigation strategies.

REMEDY mission risk evaluations will evaluate chemical and biological threats by layering threat agent risk with medical countermeasure (MCM) benefits and risks, including fielding risks. REMEDY will help quantify risks and benefits of Federal Drug Administration-approved, repurposed and investigational MCMs, enabling operational planners to make informed decisions about deployment in dynamic mission environments. REMEDY will suggest plans that maximize force survivability and fitness for duty.

SwRI offers expertise in building decision support tools for a variety of government and industry clients. REMEDY builds upon the Institute’s growing expertise in software development and medical applications of artificial intelligence. SwRI projects are using machine learning and AI to assess cancer and other diseases, and analytics to make complex decisions from disparate data sources.

This research was supported by funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The effort is sponsored by the government under Other Transaction Number W81XWH-15-9-0001. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. government.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/industries/bioinformatics-data-analysis-services.