7 ‘Bioprospecting’ for new antibiotics

Our planet is a rich, largely untapped source of antibiotics and other drugs. Most antibiotics in use today can be traced back to bacteria. But only a tiny proportion of bacteria have been screened for antibiotics and nearly all of them were isolated from soil.

There is now renewed interest in a systematic search for natural antibiotics in every conceivable location worldwide. This is known as bioprospecting .