BUCHAREST, Romania – American Soldiers from the 1st Area Medical Laboratory trained with Romanian Army troops at a biological research facility in Bucharest, Romania.
Maj. Joshua M. Carmen, the chief of the 1st AML Biological Threat Assessment Section, said the training included an introduction to the one-of-a-kind U.S. Army mobile laboratory as well as the history of biological threats and threat agents as defined by the CDC.
“The Defense Threat Reduction Agency requested 1st AML’s assistance to conduct field identification of biological agents training,” said Carmen. “Our goal was to demonstrate procedures adapted for field environments that produce accurate identification of potential threats or terrorism agents.”
Five members from the 1st Area Medical Laboratory’s Biological Threat Assessment Section, including Maj. Mathanraj Packiam, PhD, who also runs the Genetic Sequencing Laboratory at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease, participated in the training.
Maj. Christine E. Hulseberg, PhD, a former 1st Area Medical Laboratory member and the senior science officer from U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate-Georgia in Tbilisi, Georgia, also took part of the allied training event.
“These members of the team were key to our success and added the diverse perspectives of their respective organizations to this event,” said Carmen, a Phoenix native and Arizona State University graduate.
Carmen said NATO’s laboratory capabilities are focused on fixed facilities, with only a few NATO partners capable of fielding mobile laboratories.
“Our training helped to bolster confidence in our Romanian partners that they are capable of successfully developing and fielding an incident response laboratory,” said Carmen. “This type of event also strengthens the ability of CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) Soldiers to confidently collect samples and understand what the laboratory is looking for and what techniques a laboratory uses to process their samples.”
The 1st Area Medical Laboratory team conducted the training using the Romanian’s equipment at the Cantacuzino Institute.
The first week was dedicated to training Romanian soldiers from two of their CBRN Battalions on basic laboratory techniques.
