Infectious diseases database improved

A number of improvements have been made to a database recording infectious diseases around the world.

The changes made to the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB) could help the development of vaccines against infectious diseases.

A 2.0 version of the database has been launched and this could prove an additional tool for researchers looking at new diseases like swine flu as well as the likes of TB.

Alessandro Sette, the IEDB's lead scientist and director of the La Jolla Institute's Centre for Infectious Disease, said: "With this new version, we have curated hundreds of thousands of experimental data points and created a simplified search process that will significantly assist researchers around the globe in their efforts to develop new and better vaccines.

"Researchers will undoubtedly tap into the database in working to combat swine flu as well as other emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, West Nile virus and dengue fever."

The database is the biggest collection of scientific data on how the immune system reacts to infectious diseases in the world.

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