Jun Lin

Lixin Zhang

Kunihiko Nishino

Marilyn C. Roberts

Marcelo Tolmasky

Rustam I. Aminov

Antibiotics represent one of the most successful forms of therapy in medicine. But the efficiency of antibiotics is compromised by the growing number of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Antibiotic resistance, which is implicated in elevated morbidity and mortality rates as well as in the increased treatment costs, is considered to be one of the major global public health threats (www.who.int/drugresistance/en/) and the magnitude of the problem recently prompted a number of international and national bodies to take actions to protect the public (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/docs/road-map-amr_en.pdf: http://www.who.int/drugresistance/amr_global_action_plan/en/; http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/carb_national_strategy.pdf). Understanding the mechanisms by which bacteria successfully defend themselves against the antibiotic assault represent the main theme of this eBook published as a Research Topic in Frontiers in Microbiology, section of Antimicrobials, Resistance, and Chemotherapy. The articles in the eBook update the reader on various aspects and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. A better understanding of these mechanisms should facilitate the development of means to potentiate the efficacy and increase the lifespan of antibiotics while minimizing the emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogens.

Mechanisms of antibiotic resistance

Arnold L. Demain

A fresh examination of the past successes of natural products as medicines and their new future from both conventional and new technologies. High-performance liquid chromatography profiling, combinatorial synthesis, genomics, proteomics, DNA shuffling, bioinformatics, and genetic manipulation all now make it possible to rapidly evaluate the activities of extracts as well as purified components derived from microbes, plants, and marine organisms. The authors apply these methods to new natural product drug discoveries, to microbial diversity, to specific groups of products (Chinese herbal drugs, antitumor drugs from microbes and plants, terpenoids, and arsenic compounds), and to specific sources (the sea, rainforest, and endophytes). These new opportunities show how research and development trends in the pharmaceutical industry can advance to include both synthetic compounds and natural products, and how this paradigm shift can be more productive and efficacious.

Drug Discovery and Therapeutic Medicine

Natural Products

Tingyun Kuang

Congming Lu

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae and certain species of bacteria transform solar energy into chemical energy in the form of organic molecules. In fact, all life on the planet ultimately depends on photosynthetic energy conversion. The book provides a compressive and state-of-the-art of very recent progress on photosynthesis research. The topics span from atom to intact plants, from femtosecond reactions to season long production, from physics to agronomy. The book is to offer advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and research specialists the most recent advances in the all aspects of photosynthesis research. The book is intended to offer researchers detailed information on the most recent advances in all aspects of photosynthesis research. Tingyun Kuang is a professor at Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Academician of CAS; Congming Lu is a professor at Institute of Botany, CAS; Lixin Zhang is a professor at Institute of Botany, CAS and the Chief Scientist in the National Basic Research Program of China on photosynthesis.

15th International Conference on Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis Research for Food, Fuel and Future

Lixin Zhang

Books

Your next favorite book is out there