Editorial: Microbial production of medicinally important agents

Abstract

Harnessing microbial systems as bio-factories for the production of medically significant agents presents a thriving avenue in pharmaceutical research. From manufacturing natural products, including potent secondary metabolites, to the sophisticated engineering of recombinant proteins, microbial production’s contributions are manifold (Katz and Baltz, 2016). A salient trend is the rapid evolution of synthetic and molecular biology tools, which substantially enhance our capacity to manipulate microbial metabolism (Keasling, 2012; Ko et al., 2020). Furthermore, refinements in bioprocessing strategies have significantly improved the overall yield of microbial products, emphasizing the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of microbial production (Garcia-Ochoa and Gomez, 2009; Sharma et al., 2020). These advancements, in tandem with predictive technologies such as machine learning for optimal microbial strain selection and fermentation condition prediction, showcase this field’s innovative trajectory.