Monthly Update: Anti-infectives: Ancient micro-organisms as a potential source of new antibiotics

Abstract

The problem of bacterial resistance to existing antibiotics is growing at an alarming speed and poses an increasingly serious threat to society [1–6]. In order to maintain effective chemotherapy, new approaches must be found to circumvent resistance, or new antibiotics discovered that are not susceptible to current bacterial resistance mechanisms. Ancient micro-organisms may be a source of new antibiotics.