Mesur.io has secured a grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a data analysis platform that would help agency users predict an emerging biological threat or a public health crisis.
The Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based company will perform work for the Silicon Valley Innovation Program's (SVIP) Emerging Needs: COVID-19 Response & Future Mitigation effort, DHS said Monday.
The project will initially focus on adapting Mesur.io's Earthstream platform to facilitate quantitative data discovery across multiple authoritative sources in support of the departmentwide response to biological events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mesur.io designed its platform to automatically process geospatial data and proposed to update the tool to help the National Biosurveillance Integration Center monitor biothreat-related metrics.
DHS added that Earthstream, which supports agriculture research into pathogens and invasive species, has been used by the company to analyze agricultural, health and economic impacts of COVID-19.