Photos

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JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON (Dec. 8, 2025) Research scientist Juan Curbelo (left) and research immunologist Dr. Dao Ho assigned to Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) San Antonio’s Combat Casualty Care and Operational Medicine directorate, explain the cell-based, in vitro platforms used to test the safety and efficacy of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Fieldable Solutions for Hemorrhage with bio-Artificial Resuscitation Products (FSHARP) program’s novel synthetic blood product to Dr. Jeremy Pamplin, program manager, DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office at the Battlefield Health & Trauma Research Institute. The FSHARP program works to develop a deployable, shelf-stable, universal whole blood substitute as a hemorrhage countermeasure to sustain injured warfighters in austere, pre-hospital settings. NAMRU San Antonio serves as the Independent Validation & Verification partner for the FSHARP program to perform laboratory testing for safety and efficacy. The platforms used by NAMRU San Antonio incorporate both 2D and 3D formats, thus allowing the research scientists to assess endothelial barrier function in models that mimic the form and function of tubular blood vessels, which is translational to human physiology. NAMRU San Antonio, part of Navy Medicine Research & Development, works alongside research partners in the civilian sphere, academia, industry, and other government agencies to drive support of the Department of War’s objectives for a lethal fighting force and ensures U.S. service members have access to the latest scientific advances. NAMRU San Antonio conducts gap-driven combat casualty care, craniofacial, and directed energy research in support of Navy, Marine Corps and joint U.S. warfighter health readiness and lethality while engaged in routine and expeditionary operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Burrell Parmer/Released)