DARPA 'SNAPs' Up New Tools for Predicting Warfighter Readiness

Seeking to revolutionize how the Department of Defense (DoD) objectively measures individual warfighter readiness, DARPA’s newest biotechnology funding opportunity aims to develop a hand-held prediction tool for warfighter physiological states based on molecular biomarkers. The device developed under the Smart Non-invasive Assays of Physiology (SNAP) program would be readily configurable to diverse DoD needs for readiness assessment, training, and mission planning, thereby providing an individualized view into real-time warfighter performance state.

Current practices to assess warfighter readiness have not evolved alongside advances in biotechnology. These practices include medical checkups, physical readiness tests (for example, push-ups, wall jumps), and subjective self-assessment questionnaires – all of which are imprecise, time consuming, and fail to predict mission readiness. Further, these evaluations are typically conducted periodically and are therefore not temporally aligned with mission preparation or execution. To develop objective assessments with predictive value, research groups are exploring physiologically based predictors of readiness, though current analysis is often conducted in a laboratory, requiring large, expensive equipment and long processing times.

“Because of the diversity of warfighter roles and associated tasks, defining readiness itself is challenging, and varies between individuals and groups,” said Dr. Gopal Sarma, the DARPA program manager for SNAP. “What is needed is a device that can quickly quantify, at point-of-person, the variety of molecular biomarkers for predicting mission readiness for a wide range of warfighter roles.”

The three-phase, anticipated four-year SNAP program aims to develop all aspects of a fieldable device for physiological measurement of multi-omic signatures. To be useful for DoD stakeholders, the SNAP device must be all-in-one and enable portable sample collection, processing, and readout. Each of these objectives is treated as a core challenge for the program.

The program will target DoD use cases, though technologies developed in SNAP eventually could benefit health care more broadly. "Portable, multi-plexed, multi-omic measurement technologies have the potential to enable ongoing monitoring of health and disease outside of traditional care delivery settings," added Sarma. “While SNAP is focused on DoD applications in warfighter readiness, our plan is that the technologies generated will have a transformative impact on civilian medicine, public health, and national security.”

Within each phase, metrics will include a variety of biomarkers assessed, accuracy of performance prediction, and time to read out. SNAP performers will also have the opportunity to engage with U.S. government stakeholders, including DoD, as well as appropriate regulatory authorities. Teams will also collaborate with ethical, legal, and societal implications experts.

“SNAP devices will provide an objective and reliable source of actionable information about a warfighter’s physiological readiness state, thus facilitating mission-critical risk mitigation,” Sarma said. “But, the data is meant to serve as one of several sources of information for decision makers, and is not meant to serve as a replacement for human decision making.”

For information on the SNAP Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), visit: https://sam.gov/opp/274893a663d44c84970c698d234da1e7/view.

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