The Tiny Wonders in Drug Discovery: A Small Step for Microbes, One Giant Leap for Mankind

Dear Colleagues,

Although tiny, microorganisms are living things that are ubiquitous in different environments and essential to supporting other life forms on Earth. The search for bioactive compounds developed from microorganisms including yeast, fungi and bacteria has yielded great success throughout human history. In fact, these “mini-factories” offer the sustainable production of bioactive compounds at a relatively cost-effective manner. Accompanied by the advancement in molecular techniques and pharmaceutical technology, researchers can now decipher the genetic codes of various microorganisms and perform genome mining to hunt for biosynthetic genes that could be exploited for the production and isolation of valuable pharmaceutical products. These innovations further hasten the drug discovery process and development of therapeutic drugs to treat various human ailments. On the same note, trillions of microbes are living inside and out of the human body, forming what researchers called the human microbiome. Apart from supporting the digestive systems of humans via the production of useful enzymes, microbes in the human body play critical role(s) in immune system development and protect the host from pathogens. A dysbiosis or imbalance in the human microbiome is associated with the development of human diseases, including metabolic diseases, cancer, allergies and so on. In the view of these aspects, researchers are also now venturing into the development of microbiome-based therapeutics via the introduction of beneficial microbes or probiotics with the aim of restoring the host to a healthy state via reverting balance and diversity in the microbiome.

This Special Issue aims to gather recent developments in the search of bioactive microbes derived from different habitats (i.e., terrestrial, ocean, mangrove forests), particularly the mechanisms by which these microbes confer beneficial effects in mankind. We especially seek manuscript submissions in original research reports and critical narrative or systematic reviews.

Dr. Hooi-Leng Ser
Dr. Bey-Hing Goh
Dr. Matthew Donadu
Guest Editors

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• beneficial microbes
• drug discovery
• natural product
• microbiome