Global Security Newswire

The U.S. Defense Department's elite scientific research agency earlier this month authorized $2.7 million in funding to support a Kentucky firm's study into how tobacco plants can be used to grow a countermeasure to nerve agents, Wired reported on Thursday.

Kentucky Bioprocessing will use the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant to develop a potential countermeasure that could be administered to U.S. military personnel before they are sent to conflict areas where they could face a chemical attack. Protection now would require special breathing apparatuses and other equipment that is bulky and found in limited quantities.