Drug Development Research

Infectious diseases are significant causes of human mortality, morbidity, and economic loss. Although effective antimicrobial agents are available for treating bacterial infections, as are limited agents for viral, fungal, and parasitic infections, many diseases are still very difficult to treat effectively and may present serious health concerns. The emergence of drug resistance among common pathogens continues to render ineffective many previously frontline therapies, and the use of many drugs is often limited by toxicity concerns. Emergence of diseases caused by new or drug-resistant pathogens demands more effective drugs. However, current advances in chemistry, bioinformatics, and structural biology should make it possible to discover or design novel anti-infective agents that target specific functions required for pathogen growth and pathogenesis (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/about/organization/dmid/overview.htm).