Future Soldiers Could Arm Themselves Against Bioweapons with a Common Parasite

U.S. soldiers from 2nd Infantry Division at the Rodriguez Range on April 16, 2019 in Pocheon, South Korea. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

In the future military units could rely on parasites to protect them from enemy weapons after the United States government gave two of Australia’s leading researchers almost $US2.5 million ($A3.4 million) to research the potential of worms and other parasitic organisms to help combat chemical and biological weapons.

Prof. Alex Loukas and Dr. Paul Giacomin from James Cook University received the funding from the US Government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and will investigate the use of helminths—parasitic worms that infect up to 2 billion people around the world—to protect military personnel against bioterrorism agents.