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The U.S. Department of Defense’s research arm is making a concerted grasp at biotechnology. On 1 April, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a new division that will consolidate biology research scattered across its existing six divisions and possibly expand the arsenal of projects. “Researchers should see this move as a recognition of the enormous potential of biological technologies,” Alicia Jackson, deputy director of the new Biological Technologies Office (BTO), told ScienceInsider in an e-mail. Whether the agency will devote a larger chunk of the roughly $2.9 billion in its requested 2015 budget to biotech programs is not yet clear.
DARPA has been applying its high-risk, high-reward funding model to projects in the life sciences for years. In 1997, it announced the first big push into research on fighting biological hazards. More recently, it launched the Living Foundries program to use cells as molecular factories for making new materials. And its Defense Sciences Office (DSO) has aligned with President Barack Obama’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, calling for grant applications on projects to design...
DARPA has been applying its high-risk, high-reward funding model to projects in the life sciences for years. In 1997, it announced the first big push into research on fighting biological hazards. More recently, it launched the Living Foundries program to use cells as molecular factories for making new materials. And its Defense Sciences Office (DSO) has aligned with President Barack Obama’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, calling for grant applications on projects to design...