Center For Countermeasures Against Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents and Cardiac Diseases (CCACBWA

Our Programs seeks to preserve combat effectiveness through timely provision of medical countermeasures in response to Joint Service Chemical Warfare Defense Requirements. The fundamental orientation of the program is to protect Armed Forces and the Civilian from the effects of chemical warfare agents by developing protective, pretreatment, and prophylactic products, providing products usable by the individual Service member for immediate treatment of chemical warfare agent exposures, developing antidotes/therapeutics to chemical warfare agents, defining care procedures for chemical warfare agent casualties, and advancing management of these casualties. The medical countermeasures are intended to preserve and sustain the Service members’ combat effectiveness in the face of combined threats from chemical and conventional munitions on the integrated battlefield. a. Maintain the technological capability to meet present requirements and counter future chemical warfare agent threats: The program will maintain the scientific base and technological capability to develop timely medical countermeasures for both current and future chemical warfare agent threats. Research by this program will be used to identify concepts and candidate medical countermeasures for use by the individual Service member or by medical personnel. Basic and applied research are both supported and may address topics as diverse as determining sites/mechanisms of action and effects of exposure to chemical warfare agents with emphasis on exploitation of neuroscience technology and respiratory ,ocular, and dermal pathophysiology ;identifying sites and biochemical mechanisms of action of medical countermeasures; exploiting molecular biological and biotechnological approaches for development of new approaches for medical countermeasures to chemical warfare agents; and exploiting molecular modeling and quantitative structure-activity relationships in support of drug discovery and design. b. . Provide medical counter measures for the individual service member to maintain combat effectiveness and prevent or reduce injury from chemical warfare agent : This goal encompasses research supporting development of new concepts for prophylaxes, pretreatments, antidotes, and therapeutic countermeasures; development of skin protectants and decontaminants; identification of factors that influence safety and efficacy of candidate medical countermeasures; and development and maintenance of preformulation, formulation, and radiolabeling capabilities. c. support equipment for definitive care of chemical warfare agent casualties. To Provide medical management of chemical casualties to enhance survival and expedite the RTD of chemical warfare agent casualties through definitive therapies and life support technologies : This goal includes developing concepts and therapeutic regimens and procedures for the management of chemical warfare agent casualties; developing diagnostic and prognostic indicators for chemical warfare agent casualties; and developing life-support equipment for definitive care of chemical warfare agent casualties. Recent changes in the security situation facing the world have not materially reduced the threat that chemical weapons present to American Forces in the field. Many countries and terrorist groups have the capability of producing and delivering chemical warfare agents, thus posing a substantia land serious threat to the Armed Forces of the world, Classical chemical agent threat categories include vesicant or blister agents(e.g., sulfur mustard), bloodagents(e.g.,cyanide),respiratoryagents(e.g.,phosgene),andnerveagents(e.g.,GA or Tabun, GB or Sarin ,GD or Soman, and VX.