The Fungus That Gave Us Camembert, and Our Lives

By the bioMérieux Connection Editors Ninety years ago, a lab error led to the discovery of a drug that has saved more human lives than any other therapeutic and ushered in the era of modern drug discovery and development. The following year, Sir Alexander Fleming published the details of his inadvertent discovery of the first …

Unusual Case of Newborn with Salmonella Revealed with Rapid Diagnostics

by the bioMérieux Connection Editors A 4-week-old infant was admitted to pediatric ICU at the Lifespan Academic Medical Center in Providence, RI. The baby had a high fever, light sensitivity, tenderness in the neck and head, and was irritable and lethargic, with nausea and no appetite. It was difficult to awaken the child from sleep. …

Antibiotics, Antidepressants, and Opioids Found in Puget Sound Shellfish

by the bioMérieux Connection Editors As “filter feeders,” mussels provide a great method for detecting pollutants in waterways. If it’s there, mussels will ingest it. With this in mind, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) started the Puget Sound Mussel Monitoring Program: every two years, the WDFW transplants uncontaminated mussels from aquaculture facilities to …

Dangers of Multi-Drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in Children

By the bioMérieux Connection Editors In May of this year, the publication of a new study, titled, “Acinetobacter baumannii Resistance Trends in Children in the United States, 1999–2012,” in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, led to a burst of media coverage that no doubt left many young parents uneasy, to say the …