This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Infectious disease has been a historic and problematic condition for humans for centuries. Prior to 1943, a simple scratch from a rose bush could quite literally lead to a systemic bacterial infection and, ultimately, death of the patient. Howard Florey and the Oxford Team ushered in a new era of medicine with the industrial production of penicillin. Where, previously, hospital septic wards housed patients waiting to die, the same institutions became centers of healing and curing (Lax 2004). Today antibiotics are the established norm in our approach to medical treatment. One result of the availability of cheap antibiotics has, unfortunately, been their universal use throughout the medical community and in the agricultural sector. This over exploitation has inevitably led to resistance in the target microbial populations. As antibiotic resistance becomes more pronounced and established as a medical fact, it is critical to search for organisms that produce potentially beneficial antimicrobial compounds. Naturally, many of these uses will target bacteria but one can also expect that other beneficial compounds (e.g., antifungal, antimalarial, and anticancer agents) will be identified during this search.
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