Department of Defense (DoD)
Defense R&D covers the world
The Department of Defense (DoD) and military services’ medical research operations respond to diseases many Americans may never see up close, but which service personnel stationed in the developing world experience alongside local communities. Study of diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and smallpox has historically been an important component of DoD’s medical research programs worldwide.
While focused on protecting and treating US armed forces, the global health efforts of DoD and its partners include substantial research and development, infrastructure and capacity building, and training programs that benefit countries with few resources for health care.
Health programs across the globe
DoD’s projects include:
- US Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya, where over the past three decades researchers have studied trypanosomiasis, malaria, leishmaniasis, HIV and AIDS, arboviruses, and entomology.
- Makerere University Walter Reed Project, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit HIV research organization dedicated to finding a safe and effective HIV vaccine, and to the study of influenza viruses.
- The US Military HIV Research Program, operating in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Thailand, and Uganda. The program conducted the first large-scale human trial of an HIV vaccine that showed potential to prevent HIV infection. The program has also conducted pioneering studies on the epidemiology, viral evolution and recombination, and population genetic responses to HIV.
- The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, which since 1969 has been conducting pilot, bench-scale, and scale-up production of new vaccine, drug, and diagnostics products against infectious diseases. USAMRIID conducts basic and applied research on biological threats resulting in medical solutions to protect military service members and people living in endemic countries.
- The Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, an alliance with the Royal Thai Army since 1958. The institute possesses extensive basic and clinical science capabilities for specific pathogen research, enteric diseases, animal model research, malaria study, entomology, and immunology. It is has been described as the most sophisticated diagnostic and research laboratory in Southeast Asia.
DoD has a unique partnership for research, study, and higher learning development with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. and in affiliation with the Uniformed Services University. Because of the military’s network of labs and medical research facilities, these adjuncts benefit from access to tools and assets beyond those available to most civilian researchers.
For more information on the above data, please see:
US Army Medical Research Unit - Kenya Walter Reed Project.
Makerere University Walter Reed Project.
US Military HIV Research Program.
US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences.
Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc.
