A crisis looms; hence the "call to arms" issued by organizations such as the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Antibiotic resistance could subsume the glories of antibiotics and cause a global health crisis. Editors Alita A. Miller and Paul F. Miller (both affiliated with Pfizer) have brought together 20 contributions in a volume devoted to setting the stage for innovation and re-investment strategies. Arrangement is in sections on novel targets and sources, microbial communities and interactions with the host, biological agents for antibacterial therapy, and changes needed to enable antibacterial discovery. A sampling of topics: mining bacterial cell division and bacterial secretion systems for new antibacterial drugs, recent developments in natural products and their potential impact on antibacterial drug discovery, biosynthetic engineering, indigenous human microbiota, and novel targets related to the host-parasite relationship in tuberculosis. The volume is distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation 2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
