The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has made contributions to COVID-19 response based on research conducted within the past two decades, National Defense Magazine reported Thursday.
Autonomous Diagnostics to Enable Prevention and Therapeutics (ADEPT), a DARPA-led study that concluded in 2013, offers information on pathogen identification with regard to vaccine development.
Peter Highnam, acting DARPA director, said ADEPT and other existing DARPA studies have supported efforts to address and treat COVID-19. He said at an event with George Washington University's Project for Media and National Security that ADEPT has informed the development of nucleic acid vaccines.
DARPA is also working on the Pathogen Prevention program that aims to protect fielded servicemen from unknown pathogens that are potentially present in operational environments.