The 'golden age' for antibiotic discovery, from 1940 until the early 1970s, ushered in a new era in human- and animal-health and the associated dramatic increase in human life expectancies. Indeed the possibility of eradicating infectious disease seemed feasible. However it soon became apparent that microorganisms wouldn't be defeated so easily. Their weapon: antibiotic resistance. Today microbial antibiotic resistance is rapidly exhausting our supply of effective compounds and making the possibility of a global public health disaster seems likely. The urgency of this situation has spawned a plethora of new multi-disciplinary research initiatives looking for novel antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents. In this timely book respected international experts summarize the most important research to provide a timely overview of the field. Opening chapters define 'antibiotic', explain why we need new compounds, outline the applications of antibiotics, both old and new, and describe the producing microbes. These are followed by chapters that cover antibiotic resistance, toxicity, overuse, new antimicrobial sources, new targets, novel technologies for antibiotic discovery (e.g. silent gene clusters), lantibiotics, natural antivirals, new macrolide derivatives, and antibiotics in the pipeline. This books is essential reading for everyone working in antimicrobial research in academia, biotechnology companies, and the pharmaceutical industry and a recommended volume for all microbiology libraries.