Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., a multinational manufacturer and distributor of life science research and clinical diagnostics products, announced today that it has completed the purchase of certain diagnostics businesses of Biotest AG, including its diagnostics products in the areas of blood transfusion testing, transplantation, and infectious diseases for 45 million euros.

Clinical Infectious Diseases Examines Malaria Treatment An editorial commentary appearing in Clinical Infectious Diseases examines the insight gained in how best to control malaria, based on recent studies of artemisinin combination therapy (ACTs).

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded six new research contracts to discover and characterize novel adjuvants, substances that can be added to vaccines to enhance the protective immune response they induce.

A diverse international network has proposed to significantly increase the resources devoted to fighting tuberculosis, the second most deadly of the world's infectious diseases.

MRSA infections that are transmitted between dogs/cats and their human handlers, and vice-versa, are increasing-with infections of the skin, soft-tissue, and surgical infections the most common. This and other bite-related and septic syndromes caused by cats and dogs are discussed in a Review in the July edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, written by Dr Richard Oehler, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, FL, USA, and colleagues.

Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Washington, along with a number of partner institutions across the Northwest, have received federal funding to form a regional research center aimed at combating emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases that pose a serious threat to human health.

Recent research has predicted that climate change may expand the scope of human infectious diseases. A new review, however, argues that climate change may have a negligible effect on pathogens or even reduce their ranges. The paper has sparked debate in the ecological community. In a forum in the April issue of Ecology, Kevin Lafferty of the U.S.

EFPIA, the voice of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, acknowledges the adoption on 31 March 2009 by the European Parliament's Agriculture committee of a report on the welfare of laboratory animals. "Society expects the pharmaceutical industry to research and develop innovative treatments and vaccines for many unmet conditions, such as cancers, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and infectious diseases", commented Brian Ager, Director General of EFPIA.