(Genetic Engineering and Biotech News) Infectious diseases, believed to be a thing of the past only a few decades ago owing to the discovery of antibiotics, have resurfaced as an area of active research with the rampant spread of antimicrobial resistance and evolving viruses. Caused by pathogens ranging in size from viruses to worms that infect larger host organisms, the hallmark of infectious diseases is transmissibility. The outcome of an infection depends on the cellular and molecular interplay between pathogen and host and can result in either asymptomatic commensal colonization of the host by the pathogen, or symptomatic colonization leading to prolonged disease or death of the host.
New research methods are being continuously developed and refined to better understand complex molecular events in infection cycles, determinants of pathogenesis, and host immune responses, with the aim of exploiting vulnerabilities in pathogens and identifying druggable targets in hosts to treat clinical manifestations of infectious diseases.