John David: LMI Taking Long View of Biosecurity, CWMD Threats
December 19, 2019LMI Staff
Can you provide an example?
Around 2009, [Tauri] teamed with the Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative in the Department of Defense (DoD). We were investigating the Ebola virus as a potential threat and working on what a therapeutic might look like. This was years before Ebola was recognized as it is today. When the major West Africa outbreak struck in 2014, significant research and development for therapeutics and diagnostics had been conducted by another client, the Joint Program Manager for Medical Countermeasure Systems. DoD and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought a diagnostic tool into the field that our team had helped develop. R&D advancements in the years before the outbreak enabled the U.S. to respond more quickly and effectively than it might have otherwise.
How does LMI’s broader organization support your work in National Security Science & Technology?
You’re not going to take a scientist or engineer and say, “You’re solving this problem alone.” Scientists have always operated as part of a larger team, and we have a tremendous team at LMI. We rely on experts in data science, software solutions and digital architectures, and logistics to enable experimentation and perform data analysis. From the creation of virtual CBRN environments that evaluate prototyped capabilities to advanced analytics platforms that enable us to collect, curate, and parse enormous data sets seeking critical kernels of information, it’s a team effort. The collection, management, and dissemination of knowledge is integral to engineering scientific breakthroughs—in the age of big data, it’s more essential than ever.