Rapid Assessment of Individual Soldier Operational Readiness

It is important to develop a hierarchical series of molecular biomarkers for the rapid assessment of a soldier's physiological and operational readiness. Stress factors play an important role in combat related illnesses among troops. Studies of Gulf War Syndrome and other combat related disorders provide evidence that a wide range of stressors can degrade performance (e.g. fatigue, nutrition, sustained physical activity, fear, sustained attention, vaccinations, environmental chemicals, and unusual pathogens). Clearly, no single molecular marker, or small group of markers, will be able to accurately report the status of this wide variety of stress mechanisms. Rules-Based Medicine (RBM) has developed fluorescent microsphere array approach to perform Multi-Analyte Profiles (x-MAP) in blood. This technology is well suited for screening large numbers of markers in parallel to identify stress profiles. The research work on stress profiles facilitates comparison between stress responses and disease mechanisms. This should also increase the understanding and robustness of readiness profiles. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has a number of ongoing collaborations with RBM to develop and apply multiplex immunoassays to the study of infectious diseases. Thus, RBM and LLNL are uniquely qualified to perform high-throughput analyses of genomic, proteomic and other biomarkers, and to facilitate application of these approaches by those responsible for assessing troop training and readiness.