It’s one of the most famous instances in history where a failure to heed an early warning system led to catastrophic loss of life.  Had the message

An Early Warning System For Disease: An Interview With DARPA’s Epigenetics Program Manager

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2021-06-24 04:00:07

It’s one of the most famous instances in history where a failure to heed an early warning system led to catastrophic loss of life.

Had the message that a group of airplanes, called in by two technicians at the Opana Radar Station on Oahu, been seriously considered and not brushed off, it might have become a Sunday remembered for very different reasons.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 has left historians and military strategists with many lessons, but now it is the inspiration for defense against a different kind of invading enemy: the pandemic.

One of the medical innovators on the frontlines is Dr. Eric Van Gieson, program manager with the Biological Technologies Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Dr. Van Gieson’s focus at DARPA is to explore methods for the purpose of detecting and controlling disease threats.

Inspired by the aforementioned story from Pearl Harbor, Dr. Van Gieson is leading the Epigenetic CHaracterization and Observation (ECHO) project, which was developed to create technology to allow for the analysis of an individual’s epigenetic ‘fingerprint’. Through this signature program, a comprehensive record of an individual’s exposure to various contaminants is potentially revealed. Among the threats that this new technology might detect are infectious diseases, thus enabling medical practitioners to counteract pathologies.

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