SwRI showcases latest warfighter research at military health research symposium

Institute features innovative medical devices, blood substitutes, markerless motion capture

2024-08-26

(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO — August 26, 2024 — Southwest Research Institute will highlight its capacity to advance military medicine and human performance at the Military Health System Research Symposium, August 26-29, in Kissimmee, Florida.

“Southwest Research Institute has a long history of working with several DOD agencies,” said Senior Research Engineer Kreg Zimmern of SwRI’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division. “SwRI offers multidisciplinary expertise, allowing us to manage government contracts and provide a one-stop shop for research and development.”

Zimmern will showcase the SwRI-developed Advanced Military Measure of Olfaction (AMMO) kit, which can be deployed anywhere from sports competitions to battlefields. The low-cost smell test uses the ability to identify an array of scents to screen for traumatic brain injuries.

Other chemistry-focused innovations include SwRI’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency research to develop antidotes for nerve agents used in chemical warfare.

“SwRI also has played a pivotal role in developing synthetic oxygen carriers, blood substitutes and whole blood analogs for both commercial and government clients,” said SwRI Research Engineer Nick McMahon of SwRI’s Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Department.

SwRI’s exhibit will also demonstrate the Engine for Automatic Biomechanical Evaluation (ENABLE™), a tool that the U.S. Air Force recently used to identify trainees at risk for noncombat injuries. Each year, millions of military personnel suffer musculoskeletal injuries, including from routine overuse. Such injuries cost the U.S. government billions of dollars in direct and indirect costs.

“SwRI supports the military health system using a wide variety of biomechanical tools and approaches with the goal of understanding injury,” said Lead Engineer Travis Eliason, a key member of SwRI’s Human Performance Initiative. The multidisciplinary research team leverages biomechanical engineering and computer science to develop solutions for military, medical and sports clients.

“Combining high-fidelity modeling of the human body with novel markerless biomechanics technology, we take a holistic view of the individual to predict injury and help develop countermeasures,” said Eliason.

Visit booth No. 312 at MHSRS to learn how SwRI has invested in chemistry, computer science and engineering to help the U.S. Department of Defense support warfighters with military medicine, training and combat solutions.

For more information visit https://www.swri.org/industries/biochemistry-bioengineering or https://www.swri.org/industry/biomechanics-human-performance.

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SwRI showcases latest warfighter research at military health research symposium

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