DARPA Tags RSShttps://www.darpa.milDARPA Tags RSS FeedBetter Understanding of Human Brain Supports National Securityhttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2013-04-02https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2013-04-02Today, at a White House event, the President unveiled a bold new research initiative designed to revolutionize the understanding of the human brain. As part of this initiative, DARPA intends to invest roughly $50 million in 2014 with the goal of understanding the dynamic functions of the brain and demonstrating breakthrough applications based on these insights.Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMTHAPTIX Starts Work to Provide Prosthetic Hands with Sense of Touchhttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2015-02-08https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2015-02-08Despite recent advances in technology for upper-limb prostheses, artificial arms and hands are still unable to provide users with sensory feedback, such as the "feel" of things being touched or awareness of limb position and movement. Without this feedback, even the most advanced prosthetic limbs remain numb to users, a factor that impairs the limbs' effectiveness and their wearers' willingness to use them. In a step toward overcoming these challenges, DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 1 of its Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program.Sun, 08 Feb 2015 05:00:00 GMTDARPA Aims to Accelerate Memory Function for Skill Learninghttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2015-04-27-2https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2015-04-27-2A new DARPA program aims to investigate the role of neural "replay" in the formation and recall of memory, with the goal of helping individuals better remember specific episodic events and learned skills. The 24-month fundamental research program, Restoring Active Memory Replay or RAM Replay, is designed to develop novel and rigorous computational methods to help investigators determine not only which brain components matter in memory formation and recall but also how much they matter.Mon, 27 Apr 2015 04:00:00 GMTWork Begins to Support Self-Healing of Body and Mindhttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2015-10-05https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2015-10-05DARPA has selected seven teams of researchers to begin work on the Agency's Electrical Prescriptions (ElectRx) program, which has as its goal the development of a closed-loop system that treats diseases by modulating the activity of peripheral nerves. The teams will initially pursue a diverse array of research and technological breakthroughs in support of the program's technical goals. Ultimately, the program envisions a complete system that can be tested in human clinical trials aimed at conditions such as chronic pain, inflammatory disease, post-traumatic stress and other illnesses that may not be responsive to traditional treatments.Mon, 05 Oct 2015 04:00:00 GMTNeuroscience of Touch Supports Improved Robotic and Prosthetic Interfaceshttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2016-10-26https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2016-10-26Pressure-the physical quantity of an experience of touch-is a fundamental dimension of human perception, conveying to the brain not just that the skin is in contact with something, but also how intense the contact is. That awareness is what enables people to, for instance, gently but securely handle an egg without squeezing so hard that the shell cracks.Wed, 26 Oct 2016 04:00:00 GMTReinventing Drug Discovery and Development for Military Needshttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-11-28https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-11-28Flying at 50,000 feet, diving deep in the ocean, or hiking for miles with gear through extreme climates, military service members face conditions that place unique burdens on their individual physiology. The potential exists to develop pharmacological interventions to help service members complete their toughest missions more safely and efficiently, and then recover more quickly and without adverse effects, but those interventions must work on complex physiological systems in the human body.Wed, 28 Nov 2018 05:00:00 GMTIntelligent Healing for Complex Wounds https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-02-06ahttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-02-06aBlast injuries, burns, and other wounds experienced by warfighters often catastrophically damage their bones, skin, and nerves, resulting in months to years of recovery for the most severe injuries and often returning imperfect results. This long and limited healing process means prolonged pain and hardship for the patient, and a drop in readiness for the military. However, DARPA believes that recent advances in biosensors, actuators, and artificial intelligence could be extended and integrated to dramatically improve tissue regeneration. To achieve this, the new Bioelectronics for Tissue Regeneration (BETR) program asks researchers to develop bioelectronics that closely track the progress of the wound and then stimulate healing processes in real time to optimize tissue repair and regeneration.Wed, 06 Feb 2019 05:00:00 GMTPanacea Proposers Day (Archived)https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/panacea-proposers-dayhttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/panacea-proposers-dayThe Biological Technologies Office is holding a Proposers Day to provide information on the structure and objectives of the Panacea program. Panacea aims to integrate systems pharmacology and advanced medicinal chemistry approaches to expand the human drug target space for therapeutic interventions in the areas of acute management of pain and inflammation and the improvement of physiological endurance under oxygen-limited conditions or environments. Panacea will support the development and proof-of-concept demonstration of a new integrated platform for the rapid prediction, synthesis, and validation of pharmacological interventions.Bioelectronics for Tissue Regenerationhttps://www.darpa.mil/program/bioelectronics-for-tissue-regenerationhttps://www.darpa.mil/program/bioelectronics-for-tissue-regenerationThe Bioelectronics for Tissue Regeneration (BETR) program will develop technology aimed at speeding warfighter recovery, and thus resilience, by directly intervening in wound healing. To do this, researchers will build an adaptive system that uses actuators to biochemically or biophysically stimulate tissue, sensors to track the body's complex response to that stimulation, and adaptive learning algorithms to integrate sensor data and dictate intervention to the actuators.Biostasishttps://www.darpa.mil/program/biostasishttps://www.darpa.mil/program/biostasisThe Biostasis program aims to extend the time for lifesaving medical treatment, often referred to as "the Golden Hour," following traumatic injury or acute infection, thus increasing survivability for military personnel operating in far-forward conditions with limited access to medical professionals or trauma centers. To do so, Biostasis is developing novel chemical biology approaches that reversibly and controllably slow biological systems without cold-chain to stabilize and protect their functional capacity until medical intervention is possible.Electrical Prescriptionshttps://www.darpa.mil/program/electrical-prescriptionshttps://www.darpa.mil/program/electrical-prescriptionsThe Electrical Prescriptions (ElectRx) program aims to support military operational readiness by reducing the time to treatment, logistical challenges, and potential off-target effects associated with traditional medical interventions for a wide range of physical and mental health conditions commonly faced by our warfighters. ElectRx seeks to deliver non-pharmacological treatments for pain, general inflammation, post-traumatic stress, severe anxiety, and trauma that employ precise, closed-loop, non-invasive modulation of the patient's peripheral nervous system.Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces https://www.darpa.mil/program/hand-proprioception-and-touch-interfaceshttps://www.darpa.mil/program/hand-proprioception-and-touch-interfacesWith a focus on wounded warriors and facilitating their return to military service, the Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program is pursuing key technologies to enable precision control of and sensory feedback from sensor-equipped upper-limb prosthetic devices. If successful, the resulting system would provide users near-natural control of prosthetic hands and arms via bi-directional peripheral nerve implants. The program has a strong focus on technology handoff and aims to create and transition clinically relevant technology in support of wounded warriors suffering from single or multiple limb loss.Panaceahttps://www.darpa.mil/program/panaceahttps://www.darpa.mil/program/panaceaPanacea is a fundamental research program designed to provide novel, multi-target therapeutics that address under-met physiological needs of Department of Defense operators. To do so, the program is applying a systems-pharmacology approach to address the intrinsic complexity of biological processes and unlock more of the potential drug target space in the human proteome. If it succeeds, it will yield new drugs that address some of the challenging physical demands faced by warfighters, including metabolic stress - as with prolonged exertion at high altitude - and activity-related soft tissue injury and resultant pain and inflammation.Preventing Violent Explosive Neurologic Trauma (Archived)https://www.darpa.mil/program/preventing-violent-explosive-neurologic-traumahttps://www.darpa.mil/program/preventing-violent-explosive-neurologic-traumaPrevious efforts to understand brain injuries that result from nonkinetic explosive effects have focused only on a single explanation-blast overpressure. Improvised explosive device (IED)-induced injuries in Iraq, however, do not fit this hypothesis. Evidence indicates that traumatic brain injuries unique to blast exposure do not exhibit typical overpressure injuries, such as damage to gas-filled organs like lungs and bowel. DARPA's Preventing Violent Explosive Neurologic Trauma (PREVENT) program is comprehensively evaluating the physics of the interaction between an IED blast and the brain and has identified which blast components are associated with neurologic injury.Reorganization and Plasticity to Accelerate Injury Recovery (Archived)https://www.darpa.mil/program/reorganization-and-plasticity-to-accelerate-injury-recoveryhttps://www.darpa.mil/program/reorganization-and-plasticity-to-accelerate-injury-recoveryThe Reorganization and Plasticity to Accelerate Injury Recovery (REPAIR) program aims to uncover the mechanisms underlying neural computation and reorganization to improve modeling of the brain and our ability to interface with it.Surviving Blood Loss (Archived)https://www.darpa.mil/program/surviving-blood-losshttps://www.darpa.mil/program/surviving-blood-lossThe Surviving Blood Loss (SBL) program is developing novel strategies to radically extend the time injured warfighters can survive critical blood loss on the battlefield before initiation of fluid and blood resuscitation. Achieving this goal will allow increased time-as much as hours or days-for evacuation, triage, and initiation of supportive therapies.Wound Stasis System (Archived)https://www.darpa.mil/program/wound-stasis-systemhttps://www.darpa.mil/program/wound-stasis-systemUncontrolled blood loss is the leading cause of death for warfighters on the battlefield, according to the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research. The vast majority of such fatalities are from wounds that are not accessible by combat medics for traditional treatments, like direct compression. For example, in the case of internal injuries to the abdominal cavity, medics can neither visualize the damage nor access it to provide treatment. As a result, rapid and uncontrolled blood loss often leads to death before transport from the battlefield to a surgical setting can occur.