Extremophilic Cyanobacteria for Novel Drug Development

This volume presents recent developments in the novel drug development and potential of extremophilic cyanobacteria. It discusses how these tiny organism originated, produce oxygen that leads to evolution of life on the earth, how their survival strategies in extreme climatic conditions lead to diverse metabolic pathways, and the opportunity to use them to develop novel drugs. The book is comprised of five chapters, starting with the origin of cyanobacteria, their survival strategies under extreme conditions, and their capabilities to change metabolic activities.The second chapter explores the different metabolic pathways found in cyanobacteria and examines advances in this field and recent techniques like MALDI-TOF imaging and metagenomics tools as well as in silico techniques for rapid screening of secondary metabolites. Further chapters cover the glycomics of cyanobacteria, anticancer drug development, and some issues and challenges of using cyanobacteria to develop drugs.

Extremophilic Cyanobacteria For Novel Drug Development provides insight into future perspectives in drug development and is a key resource for students, researchers and professionals in pharmacy, medicinal chemistry, pharmacognosy biotechnology, biology, and academics.

Dr. Jnanendra Rath was awarded a Ph.D. in botany from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India, for his research on ecophysiological studies on the algae of Chilika Lake on the east coast of India. He served as an assistant professor in Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, India, and started his independent research on bioprospecting of cyanobacteria from extreme habitats. He established the Visva-Bharati Culture Collection of Algae (VBCCA) and is affiliated with the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC). His major research interest includes ecophysiology and survival strategies of cyanobacteria in extreme environment as well as obtaining bioactive secondary metabolites from cyanobacteria. He is an alumnus of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and a partner of the Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Dr. Rath is also a member of the Society of Wetland Scientists as well as several scientific bodies including the Psychological Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of Microbiologists of India, and the Indian Psychological Society. He is the recipient of the Raman Fellowship under the Indo-US 21st Century Knowledge Initiative and is currently a visiting scholar in the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, Oxford, Mississippi, USA. He has completed three externally funded research projects and has authored two books and twenty-four papers published in internationally recognized journals.

Dr. Sikha Mandal completed her M.Phil. in environmental science and was awarded a Ph.D. in botany from Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, India, for her research on extremophilic cyanobacteria of eastern India. She worked as a senior research fellow and research associate in a project sponsored by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). Her major research interests include drug discovery and bioprospecting of extremophilic cyanobacteria. Dr. Mandal was awarded a Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) Young Scientist grant and a Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) Women Scientists award. She is currently a member of SWS and the Psychological Society of America. She has published four papers in internationally reputed journal and is the author of three book chapters.