Approaches in the fight against Antibiotics resistance: Harnessing technology and biotechnology

Since their inception, antibiotics have been regarded as one of the most important discoveries of the twentieth century, and their widespread usage has transformed healthcare. Between 1950 and 1970, known as the "golden age" of antibacterial medication discovery, empirical screening of microbial natural product fermentation provided the majority of antibacterial classes currently utilized for infection treatment. For the last 30 years, there has been a discovery gap in antibacterial drugs, with no new classes of antibacterials released to the market until 2000, when linezolid, an oxazolidinone, was approved. Inevitably, the advent of antibiotics coincided with the emergence of the phenomena of antimicrobial resistance. Based on his early results, Fleming, in 1954 predicted that indiscriminate application of this discovery would result in the selection and development of antibiotic-resistant bacterium mutants. Indeed, after only a few years of the golden age of antimicrobials, frightening signs of resistance were noticed (1).