Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

07/06/2026

Since early this year, WRAIR-AFRIMS has been conducting biosurveillance in support of military exercises across the Indo-Pacific region. In April and May, the team conducted biosurveillance in support of Balikatan 2026, a U.S.-Philippine bilateral military exercise. The surveillance team was led by Maj. Sidhartha Chaudhury, Deputy Chief of Bacterial and Parasitic Diseases at WRAIR-AFRIMS.

Read more on DVIDS:

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research – Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences conducted real-time infectious disease surveillance from 19 Feb to 26 March in support of Cobra Gold 2026 to advance force health protection, enhance interoperability, and strengthen the U.S. and Royal...

07/02/2026

WRAIR is proud to have been a part of the National Museum of Health and Medicine's Bugapalooza 2026! 🕷️🐞🪲 Read more about the event on the DHA website:

Bugapalooza at the National Museum of Health & Medicine showcases how insects shaped military medicine.

07/01/2026

In May, WRAIR-EME provided infectious disease surveillance for Aurora 2026, Sweden’s largest annual military exercise. Maj. David Denlinger, Chief Entomologist at WRAIR-EME, led the surveillance team for this effort. This year, the exercise included over 18,000 participants from Sweden, the U.S., and 12 other countries.

Read more on DVIDS:

In May 2026, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research-Europe—Middle East conducted entomology surveillance in support of Aurora 2026 in Sweden.

06/29/2026

We hope you enjoyed Bug Week 2026! Day #4

As we highlight the impact of arthropod disease vectors on readiness, we invite the DHA community (CAC holders) to explore the Walter Reed Arthropod Intelligence Threat Hub. https://wrair.health.mil/Biomedical-Research/Center-for-Infectious-Disease-Research/Entomology/Vector-One-Health-Informatics/

WRAITH is a comprehensive GIS platform that equips our public health and medical professionals with actionable surveillance data on mosquitoes, ticks, and other vectors. By integrating additional diverse data streams—from pesticide resistance testing to global disease reservoirs—this tool enables the complex geospatial analyses required to support proactive Force Health Protection decisions and maintain a medically ready force.

06/17/2026

06/17/2026

On 1 June, WRAIR’s U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) hosted the Early Career Investigator Showcase, an event designed to celebrate MHRP’s bench of up-and-coming scientists. The showcase provided a platform for junior investigators to present their research and highlights WRAIR’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of scientific investigators and fostering a collaborative research environment.

The program featured full-length oral abstract presentations, three-minute scientific elevator pitches, and poster presentations. Dr. David J. Smith, Deputy Director of the Defense Health Agency, launched the event with opening remarks. A panel of distinguished guest judges including Dr. David Chang, Dr. Stuart Shapiro and Dr. Diana Finzi of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Capt. Maya Williams, with the DHA Military Infectious Disease portfolio, scored the presentations alongside WRAIR’s own Dr. Nelson Michael, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research, and Dr. Karen Peterson, Chief Science Officer. The showcase concluded with awards for outstanding presenters:

Best Scientific Elevator Pitch: Maj. Benjamin Custer, “Durability of HIV Virologic Suppression Through the 2025 PEPFAR Programmatic Transition: Findings from AFRICOS, 2023–2026”

Best Poster Presentation: Matthew Creegan, “Development of a 23-parameter CD4 and CD8 T cell ICS assay using PanelSolver”

Best Oral Abstract Presentation: Dr. Emily Van Buren, “B Cell Maturation Pathways During Acute Infection Influence Antibody Responses in Absence of ART”

Join us in celebrating the award winners and all the participants for their hard work and determination! 👏 👏 👏

06/12/2026

In February and March, WRAIR provided infectious disease surveillance for military exercise Cobra Gold. Cobra Gold is one of the largest military exercises in the Indo-Pacific, co-hosted by the United States and Thailand, and involving 30 participating countries.

The surveillance team was led by Maj. Sidhartha Chaudhury, Deputy Chief of Bacterial and Parasitic Diseases at WRAIR-AFRIMS. WRAIR thanks the whole biosurveillance team for their great efforts to identify disease threats and to protect force health! Read more on DVIDS:

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research – Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences conducted real-time infectious disease surveillance from 19 Feb to 26 March in support of Cobra Gold 2026 to advance force health protection, enhance interoperability, and strengthen the U.S. and Royal...

06/08/2026

On 14 May, WRAIR hosted its first Celebration of Science event to highlight current research and achievements relevant to Department of War priorities. May’s presentation highlighted the collaboration between the Multi-Drug Resistant Organism Repository and Surveillance Network (MRSN) and WRAIR – Europe-Middle East that yielded findings both directly relevant to the ongoing Military Health System support to Operation Epic Fury and a recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Check out more photos from the event on our DVIDS here: https://www.dvidshub.net/image/9691312/wrair-hosts-inaugural-celebration-science-event

Read WRAIR’s recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2512101

📸: Mike Walters

06/05/2026

In March, WRAIR-AFRIMS visited the Lao National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology to provide antimicrobial resistance training to the Lao Ministry of Health and the Lao People’s Armed Forces. During the training, participants learned how to collect environmental samples, screen them for bacteria, analyze the bacteria, and use technical methods to determine whether the bacteria were resistant to common antibiotics.

WRAIR is proud to collaborate with labs around the world to protect global health and monitor disease threats like antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Read more about this training on DVIDS here:

From 23-27 March 2026, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research – Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences visited the Lao National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology to provide antimicrobial resistance training to the Lao Ministry of Health and the Lao People’s Armed Forces.

06/02/2026

On 13 May 2026, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research was honored with awards in three categories from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) for Excellence in Technology Transfer, Interagency Trans-Disciplinary Partnership, and Outstanding Researcher/Small Research Team. This is the first time WRAIR has won an FLC award. The FLC Awards recognize excellence in federal technology transfer, recognizing federal labs and their partners for outstanding achievements in moving innovations from lab to market.

Please join us in celebrating the awarded teams! Congratulations to WRAIR’s Multidrug Resistant Organism Repository and Surveillance Network (MRSN), Integrated Systems Biology (ISB), Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), and Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) for all their hard work! Read more about the awards here:

On 13 May 2026, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research was honored with awards in three categories from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer, abbreviated as FLC, for Excellence in Technology Transfer, Interagency Trans-Disciplinary Partnership, and Outstanding Researcher/Sma...