Antibiotics and pharmacogenomics

The widespread use of antibiotics impacts both the bacterial ecology and the host at multiple levels, both advantageously and deleteriously. Since serious bacterial infection can lead to death in the absence of antibiotic therapy, antibiotics remain a necessary weapon in the clinician's arsenal for maintaining good health. It is thus critical that the placement and usage of these crucial antibiotics be constantly improved, and that emerging antibiotic resistance is vigorously assessed. To realize both these ends, it may be valuable to turn to the discipline of pharmacogenomics and develop it for use in a fairly novel way, that is, as the means by which to determine and analyze the impact of antibiotic therapy on both the pathogen and host.