Antibiotics Targets, Mechanisms And Resistance

Biological scientists mostly in academic settings focus on individual biological functions and biomolecules representing specific antibiotic targets, though some also look at general aspects such as the chemical classes of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance and fitness cost of resistance. The topics include the impact of microbial natural products on antibacterial drug discovery, the membrane as a novel target site for antibiotics to kill persisting bacterial pathogens, recent developments in inhibitors of bacterial type IIA topoisomerases, antibiotics targeting translation initiation in prokaryotes, and selected structural aspects of antibiotics at the ribosomal exit tunnel. Annotation c2014 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Claudio Gualerzi is full professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Camerino (Italy) and member of the EMBO. Following his studies at the University of Rome-La Sapienza and a postdoctoral period at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), he served as research group leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin (Germany). He was consultant for the Lepetit Research Center in Gerenzano (Italy) and has received numerous awards and honorary lectureships, including the research prize of
the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for his work on ribosome function and the discovery of novel antibiotics

Attilio Fabbretti completed his doctoral studies at the University of Camerino (Italy) where he is now a research associate in the laboratory of Molecular Biology. He received the prize of the Italian Society for General Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology for the best PhD thesis in 2007.

Letizia Brandi received her doctoral degree from the University of Catania after performing her thesis work at the University of Camerino, Italy. She served a postdoctoral period at the University of Montana (Missoula, USA) and worked as a senior scientist at Biosearch Italia, spa and Vicuron Pharmaceuticals (Gerenzano, Italy), before joining the laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Camerino where she is now a research associate.

Cynthia Pon received her PhD from Rutgers the State University (USA). Following post-doctoral periods at the University of Pennsylvania and Hunter College of the City University of New York, she worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin (Germany) before becoming full professor of Molecular and Microbial Genetics at the University of Camerino (Italy). Her work has focused on the mechanism of protein synthesis, global responses in bacteria and action