The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to issue grants worth up to $65 million in total over the next four years to seven university teams that will study and develop gene editing tools.

DARPA said Wednesday the teams will perform work under the Safe Genes program, which aims to explore how gene editing technologies work; develop ways to use the technology safely; and address potential health and security threats posed by misuse.

Awardees include teams from The Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University; Harvard Medical School; Massachusetts General Hospital; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; North Carolina State University; University of California, Berkeley; and University of California, Riverside.

DARPA noted that gene editing technologies can be used to protect warfighters against infectious disease; mitigate threats posed by biological weapons; and create new resources with unique properties such as novel chemicals, materials and coatings.

“Part of our challenge and commitment under Safe Genes is to make sense of the ethical implications of gene editing technologies, understanding people’s concerns and directing our research to proactively address them so that stakeholders are equipped with data to inform future choices,” said Renee Wegrzyn, DARPA program manager for Safe Genes.

Each team will focus on one or more of three technical objectives, including the development of genetic constructs to help control genome editors in living organisms; drug-based countermeasures to regulate genome editing in organisms; and a tool that can remove unwanted engineered genes from systems.

The university researchers will coordinate with potential stakeholders, including government regulators, to support scientific development and address questions and concerns on experiments.

The teams will also work to incorporate stakeholder feedback in the future when developers must decide whether to use the gene editing tools and how to apply them.

President Donald Trump has announced plans to nominate Mark Esper, vice president of government relations at Raytheon, as U.S. Army secretary, Inside Defense reported Wednesday.

Esper is the administration’s third pick for the post following the decision of Vincent Viola, founder of digital stock trading firm Virtu Financial, and Tennessee Sen. Mark Green to withdraw their names from consideration.

The Senate Armed Services Committee held a July 12 hearing to vet Ryan McCarthy, an executive at Lockheed Martin and the White House’s pick for the service branch’s undersecretary post.

Esper joined Raytheon in 2010 after serving as VP of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and executive VP of the Global Intellectual Property Center as well as the Aerospace Industries Association.

He previously served as director for national security affairs for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist between 2004 and 2006 and policy director within the House Armed Services Committee.

The retired Army officer also worked at the Defense Department as deputy assistant secretary.

The Senate voted 92-7 Tuesday to confirm Patrick Shanahan, senior vice president of supply chain and operations at Boeing, for the deputy defense secretary role, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Shanahan’s confirmation for the Defense Department‘s no. 2 civilian post comes as the Trump administration’s 40 nominees for federal government roles face Senate vote delay.

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved his nomination on June 28.

He will succeed Robert Work, who is set to hand over a dozen reviews to Shanahan.

Shanahan is a three-decade Boeing veteran who previously served as VP and general manager of the aerospace and defense company’s missile defense systems and rotorcraft systems segments.

The F-35 joint program office plans to update an onboard oxygen generation system to facilitate the flow of oxygen to pilots flying Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighter jets, Defense News reported Tuesday.

The OBOGS upgrade plan is in response to five incidents of hypoxia-like symptoms or oxygen deprivation experienced by F-35A pilots at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona in June.

Brandi Schiff, a spokesperson for F-35 JPO, said a change in algorithm linked to oxygen concentration will be part of the OBOGS modification plan.

Schiff noted that Honeywell will design the updated firmware for the fighter jet’s OBOGS platform and create a way to retrofit all F-35 variants with the upgraded capability.

“Cost estimates are still being developed,” Schiff said.

“The current time estimate is 24 months, but the F-35 joint program office, or JPO, is pushing [F-35 prime contractor] Lockheed Martin to accelerate the fielding of this new firmware.”