MacFarland Laboratories

McFarland Laboratories was a historical biological products company founded by Dr. Joseph McFarland, a prominent American pathologist and bacteriologist. The company is most famous for the development of the McFarland Standards, which are used in microbiology to adjust the turbidity of bacterial suspensions to a known concentration. These standards remain a fundamental tool in clinical microbiology laboratories worldwide for standardized antibiotic susceptibility testing and other diagnostic procedures. While the original laboratory entity is no longer active as an independent commercial company, the McFarland brand and its turbidity standards are currently manufactured and distributed by major diagnostic companies such as Hardy Diagnostics and Thermo Fisher Scientific.