title: The evolving role of infectomics in drug discovery.
abstract: Signatures of infectomes, which are encoded by both host and microbial genomes, and mirror the interplay between pathogens and their hosts, provide invaluable knowledge in the search for novel antimicrobial drugs. Infectomics is the study of infectomes by using systems biology and high-throughput omic approaches. There are three types of infectomic approaches that can be used for drug discovery: ecological infectomics, immunoinfectomics and chemical infectomics. Ecological infectomics, which is the ecological study of infectomes, explores symbiotic solutions to microbial infections. Research on drug discovery using infectomic signatures and immunomic approaches falls within the field of immunoinfectomics. Advances in chemical infectomics will lead to the development of a new generation of chemical drugs for therapeutics for microbial infections.
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, Division of Infectious Diseases, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, 4650 Sunset Blvd., Mailstop #51, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA +1 323 669 4160 ; +1 323 660 2661 ; shhuang@hsc.usc.edu.
authors.forename: Sheng-He
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xiaoning
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ambrose
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jong