Infectious Disease

For more than fifty years, researchers have been studying exactly how aspirin affects the human body. Despite thousands of publications on the topic, our understanding is still incomplete.

Novel chemical and biological weapons have historically been mass-produced within a year of discovery. Using current methods and technologies, researchers would require decades of study to gain a cellular-level understanding of how new threat agents exert their effects. This temporal gap between threat emergence, mechanistic understanding and potential treatment leaves U.S. forces vulnerable.

Dr. Barry Pallotta was named Acting Deputy Director of BTO in May 2016, after serving as Acting Director since December 2015. He joined DARPA as a program manager in 2011. His interests focus on complex biological systems and their application to scientific discovery and the development of medical countermeasures to biological threats.