ADvanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness (ADAPTER)

Dr. Paul Sheehan

Warfighters are travelers, and the bodily inconveniences suffered by travelers, such as jet lag and traveler’s diarrhea, can seriously degrade operational readiness and even determine mission success or failure.

To maximize warfighter performance, the ADvanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness (ADAPTER) program will develop systems that provide warfighters greater control over their own physiology.

This program will integrate engineered cells and biochemicals into an internal, bioelectronic carrier that the warfighter can signal, as needed, to produce and release therapies that either eliminate the principal cause of traveler’s diarrhea, pathogenic bacteria, or regulate circadian rhythms disrupted by mission requirements or jetlag.