Science & Technology Directorate Chemical & Biological Division

Mission

The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate's Chemical and Biological Division (CBD) increases the nation's preparedness against chemical and biological threats through improved threat awareness and advanced surveillance, detection, and protective countermeasures. The Division works closely with the Department's Office of Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer and the Department's Office of Infrastructure Protection to increase public and governmental security awareness of potential chemical and biological threats and to strengthen the nation's response against these threats. 

Objectives

The Chemical and Biological Division has defined six strategic objectives to help accomplish its mission.

• Enable comprehensive understanding and analyses of biological and chemical threats in the domestic domain;
• Develop pre-event assessment, discovery, and interdiction capabilities for biological and chemical threats;
• Develop capability for warning, notification, and timely analysis of biological and chemical attacks;
• Optimize technology and process for recovery from biological and chemical attacks;
• Enhance the capability to identify biological and chemical attack sources; and
• Develop vaccines and diagnostics for high-priority foreign animal diseases.

Leadership

Elizabeth George is the Director for the Chemical and Biological Division within the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate. 

Organization

The Chemical and Biological Division actively coordinates with interagency partners such as the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to maximize resources and minimize duplication. The Division carries out its activities through the following three thrust areas:

• Biological Countermeasures
• Agriculture
• Chemical Countermeasures

Biological Countermeasures Thrust Area

The Biological Countermeasures Thrust Area provides the understanding, technologies and systems needed to protect against possible biological attacks on the nation’s population or infrastructure. The thrust area focuses primarily on those biological attacks that can potentially cause widespread catastrophic damage. Where appropriate, the program incorporates biodefense as part of an integrated chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) defense across civil and military agencies. It also supports Biodefense Strategy for the 21st Century, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 10 (HSPD-10), which provides a comprehensive framework for our nation's biodefense. The five main program areas in the biological countermeasures thrust area includes: threat awareness program, surveillance and detection program, response and restoration program, and forensics program.

• Threat Awareness Program – characterizes threats posed by biological weapons, anticipates future threats, and conducts comprehensive threat and risk assessments to guide prioritization of the nation’s biodefense investments. The primary deliverable is an intelligence-informed, scientific characterization and prioritization of bio-terrorist risks to the nation. This deliverable is used by OHA, the Homeland Security Council (HSC) and other agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), EPA, Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Intelligence Community (IC) to support their efforts in enhancing the nation’s biodefense. 
• Surveillance and Detection Program – develops next-generation detectors for biological threat agents, including fully autonomous detection capabilities for the third generation (Gen 3) BioWatch system. In addition, this program works to develop the assays (i.e., signatures or fingerprints of biological agents) needed by detectors to accurately recognize a biological agent. 
• Response and Restoration Program – provides advanced planning, develops concepts-of-operation, and funds exercises and training for responding to and recovering from a large-scale biological attack. The objective is to provide a more rapid and less expensive post-attack cleanup and restoration in such situations.
• Forensics Program – operates the National BioForensics and Analysis Center (NBFAC) and conducts bioforensics research in support of criminal investigative cases, with the ultimate goal of attribution, apprehension, and prosecution of the perpetrator to fulfill Biodefense for the 21st Century (HSPD-10). These activities provide facilities, analytical methods, and rigorous chain-of-custody controls needed to support the FBI and others in their investigation of potential biocrimes or acts of bioterrorism. Additional research and development projects in this program area work to develop improved methods for extracting genetic materials and proteins from samples for biological, chemical, and physical characterization.

Agriculture Thrust Area

The Agriculture Thrust Area supports Homeland Security Presidential Directive 9 (HSPD-9) to protect the nation’s agriculture and food system against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. This thrust area enhances current agricultural countermeasures, develops new agricultural countermeasures and plans to provide safe, secure, state-of-the-art biocontainment laboratories for researching foreign and zoonotic diseases. The nature of our agricultural and food system is open and extensive and, therefore, can be contaminated by unintentionally introduced agents or deliberate acts of terrorism. This thrust area works to augment the United States (U.S.) Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services efforts to develop the best protection possible against attacks on the U.S. agricultural and food supply through Research and Development (R&D). Additionally, this thrust area supports the Joint Agro-Defense Office (JADO), which has been established to coordinate, integrate, and oversee an interagency agro defense R&D program.

Chemical Countermeasures Thrust Area

The Chemical Countermeasures Thrust Area develops technology to reduce the nation’s vulnerability to chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and commonly used toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and provides countermeasures to emerging non-traditional chemical threat agents (NTAs). The three main program areas in the chemical countermeasures thrust area include the following: analysis, detection, and response recovery. 

• Analysis Program – develops a robust and enduring analytical capability to support the chemical countermeasures development. Activities focus on:
  1. developing a fundamental understanding of toxic chemical threat properties and conducting risk and vulnerability assessments based on those properties;
  2. developing and sustaining expert reach-back capabilities to provide rapid support in domestic emergencies; and
  3. developing and validating forensic methodologies and analytical tools, such as chemical signatures, which are used to help identify the nature and origin of chemical threats used by terrorists and criminals.
• Detection Program – Develops technology to warn and notify of a chemical threat release. It includes technologies responders need to survey potentially contaminated scenes, while limiting their exposure to chemical agents. This program aims to provide technologies that can, in a single package, sense chemical agents and more commonly monitored chemicals, at costs that will support dual-use application. Due to the various physical properties associated with detecting high-vapor pressure versus low-vapor pressure chemical threats, an array of technologies is required to ensure that the full spectrum of chemical hazards is adequately addressed.
• Response and Recovery Program – Provides technologies for returning a chemically contaminated area to a normal condition. This work primarily supports the development of technologies and guidelines for decontamination and the analysis of contaminated areas both before and after restoration processes. These efforts will decrease the duration of cleanup efforts after an attack with a chemical agent on key infrastructure and include supporting capabilities such as the development and demonstration of facility restoration and decontamination technologies and guidelines; development of a mobile chemical analysis laboratory; and the development of fixed-site chemical analysis laboratories for CWAs.