The discovery and development of antibiotics has been one of the most significant advances in medicine. In a golden era lasting from the 1940s to the late 1960s, antibiotic research provided mankind with a wide range of structurally diverse and effective agents for the treatment of microbial infections. Since then, actinomycetes, most notably members of the genus Streptomyces, have uninterruptedly proved to be a particularly rich source of antibiotics and other therapeutic and biotechnologically important compounds. This book brings together expert actinomycetologists to communicate the importance of finding novel antibiotic producing actinomycetes in extreme and marine environments in the light of molecular advances.

Dr. Kurtböke’s experiences in the field of biodiscovery with actinomycetes date back to 1982 when she was first involved in the large-scale production of antibiotic gentamicin in Eczacıbaşı İlaҫ A.Ş. in İstanbul, Türkiye. Subsequently she was at the University of Milan in Italy (1983–86) for graduate research followed by a Ph.D. at the University of Liverpool, UK (1990). Her most significant contribution has been the development of a novel isolation technique that selectively cultures rare actinomycetes with industrial importance which was adopted and applied by leading pharmaceutical companies since the 1990s. Since taking up her first post-doctoral position at the University of Western Australia (1990), she has established bio-resource libraries for joint screening ventures with leading pharmaceutical companies in different settings in Australia. She was one of the key scientists involved in the establishment of AMRAD Discovery Technologies Pty. Ltd.’s Australia’s largest bioresource library in Melbourne (1995–2000). Since 2001 she has been at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) in Queensland, Australia, currently Associate Professor and teaching and conducting research in the fields of applied, industrial and environmental microbiology.

Dr. Kurtböke’s methodological strength in the field of actinomycetology played a key role in the detection of novel actinomycetes and contributed towards the establishment of yet another microbial library of bioactive actinomycetes at the UniSC. The library has been used for research and teaching activities at the UniSC as well as in collaborative partnership with regional, national, and international institutions for the discovery of new drugs, agro-biologicals, enzymes, and environmentally friendly biotechnological innovations. She has been an Executive Board Member of the World Federation of Culture Collections (WFCC) since 2000, currently serving her second term as the President of the Federation (2017–2020, 2021–2024). She is also one of the members of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), Bacterial Viruses Subcommittee. She has editorial duties in different journals including Marine Drugs, Diversity and Frontiers Marine Science/Marine Biotechnology.

She is also the editor of the books titled: Bacteriophages (2012, InTech), Microbial Resources-From Functional Existence in Nature to Industrial Applications (2017, Academic Press, Elsevier) and Importance of Microbiology Teaching and Microbial Resource Management for Sustainable Futures (2022, Academic Press, Elsevier) and all of which brought experts in the fields of microbial ecology, taxonomy, culture collections and industrial microbiology together to highlight the importance of diverse microbial resources for global sustainability and biotechnological innovations.