Biosurveillance
Biosurveillance integrates physiological wearables, point-of-care diagnostics, environmental and wastewater monitoring, genomic and metagenomic sequencing, and AI-driven epidemiologic analytics to detect infections, antimicrobial resistance, and engineered threats early. In military contexts it enables force health protection, rapid outbreak containment, and decision support for prolonged and austere care.
Technical Challenges
Timely, field-deployable diagnostics with sufficient sensitivity and specificity for novel pathogens.
Integration of heterogeneous data streams (physiology, lab, environmental) into actionable alerts without excessive false positives.
Genomic surveillance capacity at point-of-need for strain-level characterization and AMR detection.
Robust, low-power sensor networks and secure communications in austere, degraded, or contested environments.
Emerging Opportunities
Validated algorithms that prioritize actionable events for commanders and clinicians during high-noise operations.
Standardized, interoperable data architectures linking tactical sensors to public health systems and DoD repositories.
Rapid regulatory pathways and clinical validation pipelines tailored to military operational constraints.
Cost-effective environmental sampling solutions (wastewater, air) that work at small operational units and forward sites.
Current and Emerging Technologies in Biosurveillance
Wearables & physiological monitoring
Continuous heart rate, temperature, respiratory rate, and biometric trend analysis provide early syndromic signals of infection or physiological stress relevant to force health monitoring.
Environmental and wastewater surveillance
Localized wastewater, air and surface sampling detect community-level pathogen shedding and chemical-biological contamination, enabling preclinical outbreak detection at bases and installations.
Rapid molecular diagnostics and point-of-care testing
Isothermal amplification, rapid PCR, antigen testing, and CRISPR-based assays offer near-patient pathogen ID and AMR marker detection to guide treatment in prolonged or delayed evacuation scenarios.
Genomic sequencing & metagenomics
Portable sequencers and cloud-enabled metagenomic pipelines enable strain-level surveillance, outbreak forensics, and detection of engineered modifications or resistance determinants.
AI/ML and biosurveillance platforms
Machine learning fuses multi-source data, reduces false alarms, predicts spread, and supports mission-focused dashboards for clinicians and commanders with explainable outputs.
Networked biosensors & IoT
Distributed chemical and biological sensors with resilient communications provide real-time environmental hazard mapping and integrate with electronic health records and operational systems.
Importance to Military Medicine
Force readiness and outbreak mitigation
Early detection and containment preserve unit effectiveness, reduce non-battle attrition, and maintain operational tempo during pandemics and localized outbreaks.
Prolonged and distributed care decision support
Real-time surveillance informs triage, antimicrobial selection, and evacuation priorities when definitive care is delayed in austere settings.
Protection in austere environments
Low-power, rugged systems enable continuous monitoring on forward bases, ships, and distributed operations where traditional lab infrastructure is absent.
Integration with clinical and public health response
Linking biosurveillance to infection control, vaccination campaigns, and therapeutic allocation reduces secondary infections and supports sustained medical readiness.
Alignment with the MTEC Mission
Accelerates translation of surveillance innovations to operational use, consistent with MTEC’s DoD-focused medical technology mission.
Enables dual-use outcomes by promoting civilian public health benefits from technologies developed for warfighter protection.
Draws on MTEC’s cross-disciplinary portfolio—diagnostics, analytics, telemedicine, and field-care technologies—for integrated solutions.
Supports DoD priorities for readiness, biodefense, and force health protection through rapid, evidence-based capability maturation.
Dual-Use (Military + Civilian) Applications
Early detection of respiratory and gastrointestinal outbreaks in garrison and field units to prevent mission degradation.
Operational biosurveillance for biodefense: rapid identification and attribution of engineered or naturally emergent threats.
Antimicrobial resistance monitoring to guide therapeutics and reduce treatment failures in polytrauma and wound care scenarios.
Environmental contamination surveillance for expeditionary bases, ships, and allied partner facilities to inform mitigation and decontamination.
Public health augmentation: data sharing with civilian systems for community outbreak response and dual-use resilience.
Explore MTEC Members with Biosurveillance Capabilities
MTEC members bring unique strengths across diagnostics, biosensors, data science, clinical validation, and regulatory pathways—enabling rapid prototyping, field evaluation, and scale-up to operational use.
Consortium collaboration couples industry agility with DoD clinical and operational expertise, accelerating solutions that meet military requirements while producing civilian public health benefits.
Explore MTEC member profiles to identify partners experienced in field-ready diagnostics, environmental surveillance systems, genomic pipelines, and AI-enabled biosurveillance platforms.
128 Members with Biosurveillance capabilities.
The University of Texas System is a leading public university system in the United States, dedicated to improving lives through education, health care, and research. With over 256,000 students enrolled across 14 institutions, the UT System is committed to providing affordable access to higher education and producing a skilled workforce to drive Texas's economy.
IQVIA is a global leader in advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services for the life sciences industry. With a mission to accelerate innovation for a healthier world and a vision to power smarter healthcare for everyone, everywhere, IQVIA leverages unparalleled data, transformative technology, and deep healthcare expertise to drive better patient outcomes. Operating in over 100 countries with approximately 88,000 employees, IQVIA supports pharmaceutical, biotech, medtech, public health, and government organizations with a comprehensive portfolio of services and solutions. The company is recognized for its Connected Intelligence™, healthcare-grade AI, and commitment to sustainability, innovation, and evidence-based insights that shape the future of healthcare globally. IQVIA is also dedicated to reducing health inequities and driving sustainable change through innovation, collaboration, and data-driven solutions, partnering with organizations worldwide to address complex healthcare challenges.
Georgia Southern University is a vibrant institution with over 26,100 students across three campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, and Hinesville. The university offers 132 degree programs at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate levels, emphasizing student success, community impact, and research excellence. With a commitment to inclusivity and engagement, Georgia Southern fosters a supportive environment for diverse learners, including military-affiliated and adult students. The university is dedicated to transforming lives through education and community engagement, aligning its programs with regional needs. Additionally, Georgia Southern provides accelerated pathways for students to fast-track their master's degrees, enhancing educational opportunities. The university also emphasizes career readiness and public impact research, preparing students for successful careers and contributing to community development.
Humanetics Corporation is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, focused on developing and commercializing products to enhance human health and wellbeing. Founded in 1988, the company specializes in radiation modulators, adjunctive oncology therapies, and pulmonary protective therapies, particularly for COVID-19. Humanetics is known for its lead drug candidate, BIO 300, which is being developed as a radioprotectant for military and civilian use, as well as a treatment to improve outcomes in cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. The company is actively engaged in research programs for non-small cell lung cancer, prostate cancer, and head and neck cancers.
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Seek Labs is a biotechnology company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, dedicated to advancing scientific discovery and delivering universal healthcare solutions. The company specializes in next-generation point-of-care molecular diagnostics and programmable CRISPR-based therapeutics, aiming to bridge the gap between disease outbreak and intervention. Powered by its proprietary AI discovery engine, BioSeeker™, Seek Labs is building a modular, full-stack system that enables rapid response to emerging pathogens, scalable precision treatments, and accessible diagnostics. The company is committed to global health innovation, sustainability, and community engagement, and is a proud member of Utah's BioHive life sciences ecosystem. Seek Labs' mission is to empower individuals with healthcare solutions tailored to their specific needs, revolutionizing the detection and treatment of diseases for both human and animal health.
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Zeteo Tech is a venture-backed biodefense and medical device company that has developed a revolutionary new class of fieldable biological mass spectrometers. Their technology identifies airborne microbes, proteins, and lipids, enabling rapid screening for infectious diseases and bio-threats. With a focus on cost-effective solutions, Zeteo Tech aims to enhance biodefense capabilities and improve patient screening for diseases like tuberculosis.
The University of Chicago is a prestigious urban research university committed to rigorous inquiry and intellectual freedom. Founded in 1890, it has produced numerous Nobel laureates and is known for its transformative education and groundbreaking research across various fields. The university fosters an inclusive and diverse learning environment, encouraging participation from all community members.
Boston University is a major research institution committed to leading breakthroughs across various disciplines. The Office of Research supports and advances research excellence, fostering collaboration among researchers, industry partners, and government leaders to address significant societal challenges.
Island Pharmaceuticals Limited develops small molecule drugs for antiviral applications, with a principal focus on mosquito- and vector-borne infections such as dengue and Zika, and potential threats such as Marburg. The company emphasizes strategies to accelerate clinical timelines, harnessing compounds with established human safety profiles for rapid advancement through preclinical and clinical stages. It maintains active collaborative research and regulatory engagement, and is publicly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Baylor University is a preeminent Christian research university committed to addressing the world's most meaningful challenges through top-tier research and scholarship. Recognized as an R1 research institution, Baylor focuses on infusing its distinct Christian mission into its research initiatives, fostering a commitment to excellence and innovation.
TIMSER S.A.P.I. de C.V. is a biomedical company in Mexico developing accessible and non-invasive blood-based screening solutions for early detection of cervical cancer and its precursor lesions. The company leverages more than a decade of research to advance clinically validated molecular diagnostics using protein biomarkers identified through proteomics and molecular biology approaches. These technologies address barriers to traditional screening and are backed by extensive national and international patent coverage and clinical trial validation involving hundreds of participants.
Evimero is an interdisciplinary company focused on understanding the interactions between microorganisms and human health, agriculture, and the environment, utilizing Systems Biology and AI/ML. Evimero applies molecular principles to infectious disease and microbiome science to improve health outcomes and environmental sustainability through targeted interventions in dysbiotic microbiomes and in people with infectious disorders. Evimero has an infectious disease product pipeline including both prophylactic and diagnostic assets against common causes of Travelers' Diarrhea, including a unique approach to preventing infection with human Norovirus, enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and others. Evimero's pipeline of drugs targeting human and animal microbiomes includes early-stage assets aimed at generalized microbiome-driven inflammation and gut leak, and specific disease-targeted disorders including Parkinson Disease and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Evimero's platform also makes possible a suite of point-of-care diagnostics that can be used for patient cohorting (infectious diseases), risk stratification, and ultimately informing therapeutic decision-making. The nature of Evimero's platform assures a steady stream of novel assets targeting both infectious diseases and chronic disorders with roots in microbiome dysfunction.

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