Preface

Microorganisms are ubiquitous organisms; we cannot imagine our existence without them. These are one of the world's greatest living populations. Some bacteria can harm people, others enable us to live on this planet, and a few have no effect on us. Microbial infections have long been one of the primary causes of morbidity and mortality around the world. Despite the fact that the discovery of a wide range of anti-microbial medicines has aided in the control of the impact of microbial diseases, the growth of drug resistance among bacteria has lowered the efficiency of anti-microbial agents, paving the need for novel anti-microbial treatments.

Keeping the recent developments in context, this book “Frontiers in Antimicrobial Agents Vol. 2, Current Trends in the Identification and Development of Antimicrobial Agents” is an effort to bring together the experience of eminent researchers to discuss various aspects of anti-microbial research. Different chapters of this book cover various aspects of anti-microbial drugs, drug resistance, emerging and re-emerging microbial diseases, drug discovery, sources of novel anti-microbial compounds, and future needs of anti-microbial drugs. The book will be useful for microbiologists, biotechnologists, pharmacologists, clinicians, researchers in biotechnology, or any scholar of the allied fields who have an interest in working on anti-microbial drug discovery and development.

The chapters incorporated have been written in simple and straightforward language, while significant emphasis has been given to providing updated information. Keeping the researchers in mind, each chapter is well supported with the latest references, which will assist them in following the information in more detail.

We would like to express our gratitude to all the authors of the chapters for contributing their knowledge and experience to make this book possible. We also like to thank Dr. Neeta Raj Sharma, Professor and Dean, School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, for supporting us throughout. Lastly, we want to extend our sincere thanks for various favors extended by our family members at various stages of the publication. With this, we hope that the content of this book will be helpful for the readers to improve their knowledge in the field of anti-microbial drug discovery and development.