Connections: From Mima/Herellea to Acinetobacter to the Double Helix to Lwoff to … CRAB

There once was a Scientific American section authored by science historian James Burke called ‘Connections”. In it James Burke, a true renaissance man, showed us how an ‘internet’ of serendipitous encounters, connections between persons, places and events led to advances Continue reading Connections: From Mima/Herellea to Acinetobacter to the Double Helix to Lwoff to … CRAB

CMV Connections: Paul-Bunnell Negative Mononucleosis and ‘Changelings’

Mononuclesosis is an EBV infection that can be diagnosed with the heterophil antibody test developed by Paul and Bunnell. The test is based on the agglutination of sheep erythrocytes with the blood of EBV infected patients. P-B heterophil serology is Continue reading CMV Connections: Paul-Bunnell Negative Mononucleosis and ‘Changelings’

Prospecting for New Antibiotics

The QIDP designation was introduced in 2012 to incentivize drug development in antiinfectives. QIDP came with several attractive features, such as prolongation of patent life, FDA expedited review and more.  In addition, FDA made it quite easy to garner the label.  Continue reading Prospecting for New Antibiotics

Sulfonamides Revisited, With an Emphasis on Dapsone

The sulfonamide moiety is a remarkable structure giving rise to diverse drugs in arious therapeutic areas such as antibiotics, antidiabetics, diuretics and anti-inflammatory agents. In regards to antibiotics, sulfonamides are in common use as antifungals (P. jiroveci), antiparasitics (toxoplasmosis, cyclospora, isospora, Continue reading Sulfonamides Revisited, With an Emphasis on Dapsone

Sesquicentennial of the Clinical Thermometer

The history of the thermometer is studded with famous and familiar names. Galileo Galilei from Pisa, Santorio from Padua, and Huygens from The Hague developed temperature measuring devices, and Celsius from Uppsala, a Swede with a latinized name, Fahrenheit, from Continue reading Sesquicentennial of the Clinical Thermometer