vSince the first two editions in this series were published, much has changed in the world of
antibiotic resistance research. Importantly, national and international reports have high-
lighted the cost of antibiotics resistance to world health. There is a recognition of the need
to understand the processes that drive resistance and to identify ways to ameliorate the
apparently inexorable progress to a post-antibiotic age.
At the same time, our science has not stood still and there are new tools to address the
old questions. This new edition of Antibiotic Resistance Protocols draws on a wide range of
different technologies. These range from conventional growth-based techniques to the
application of molecular biology to understand the development of resistance mutations,
diagnosis, and monitoring treatment response. Importantly, we are now starting to see
beyond genetic resistance to start to understand how transitory phenotypic resistance may
play a role in the emergence of fully resistant strains. Within this volume there are tech-
niques from the microscopic scale to whole animal models.
Antibiotic resistance is, truly, a major threat to modern medicine, which is only possible
with the contribution of antibiotics to support patients through complex procedures. It is
only by redoubling our research efforts are we likely to address this problem, and the third
edition of this series provides tools that we hope you will find useful in your contribution
to progress.
St. Andrews, UK Stephen H. Gillespie
Preface