Preventing viral disease outbreaks
from animals and vectors into humans.
Understanding how viruses evolve within a species will be a core area of research. That evolutionary process contains natural bottlenecks that could be exploited to impede dangerous mutations. PREEMPT will seek to identify these opportunities for intervention by modeling the factors that enable species jump. Researchers on the program will be required to conduct field surveillance of animal and insect species in high-risk areas around the world; generate data in lab testing and sequence viruses as they evolve; analyze the jump risk by weighing factors such as past known jump events, ecology, seasonal variants, and geospatial data; and, finally, validate models using simulated natural environments.
New proactive interventions will center on methods for disarming a virus before it can make a jump across species. PREEMPT aims to prevent transmission of virus from a reservoir species direct to humans, from a reservoir species to traditional vectors, such as mosquitos, that spread disease, and from a reservoir species to a species intermediate to humans—for example, from bats to pigs.
DARPA says that successful interventions will be tailored to anticipated threats. For instance, if a single mutation is identified by models as high risk, an intervention might seek to prevent its entry into a new species by removing that specific mutation from the reservoir. Alternatively, if multiple potential threats are identified, an intervention could involve treating the entire animal reservoir to reduce viral load using tools such as anti-virals, vaccines, and interfering particles. Other forms of intervention might involve new approaches to suppressing the transmission of specific viruses by insect vectors. In all cases, researchers will need to develop scalable methods that can be readily deployed even in remote locations.
During the planned 3.5-year PREEMPT program, DARPA aims to identify signatures of viral fitness and the potential for spillover from one species to another; develop risk classifiers and predict pathways of viral adaptation; and test initial intervention approaches. By the end of the program, DARPA seeks to demonstrate in controlled laboratory conditions the suppression of viral jump to a new species.
“If we are able to predict how viruses might mutate and spread, and take steps to prevent those mutations from impacting humans, then we’ll vastly diminish the possibility of future viral pandemics,” said Gimlett.
Although PREEMPT is a fundamental research program, DARPA is aware of biosafety and biosecurity sensitivities that could arise. The agency will work with external bioethics advisors to ensure efforts funded by the program adhere to regulations and ethical best practices. Proposers will also be required to address potential ethical, legal, and societal implications of the research.
DARPA will hold a Proposers Day on 30 January 2018, in Arlington, Virginia, to provide more information about PREEMPT and to answer questions from potential proposers. For details of the event, including registration requirements, visit: https://go.usa.gov/xnyzB.
