This book compiles the latest research on the multifarious roles of microbial enzymes, and provides an overview of microbial enzymes and biotechnologies. It discusses the use of microbial enzymes in innovative areas like nanomedicine and synthetic biotechnology, as well as the use of starch digesting enzymes and bioactive proteins as biotherapeutics, all of which have applications in modern drug discovery processes. The book also examines the concept of microbial biotransformation and protein engineering, and covers topics such as the immobilization of therapeutic enzymes, bioengineering of enzymes for bioactive compounds, the production of hydrolytic and oxidative enzymes from plant raw materials, and prebiotics and probiotics.

Given its multidisciplinary scope, this book will appeal to researchers and industry experts in the fields of microbiology, biotechnology and molecular medicine.

Prof. Pratyoosh Shukla is a Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology, Maharshi Dayanand University, India.  His research interests include enzyme technology, protein bioinformatics and microbial biotechnology. He has more than 20 years of research and 18 years of teaching experience at respected Indian universities of India, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Durban University of Technology, South Africa. He also worked as a Research Professor at the University of Cincinnati under Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) and American Society of Microbiology (ASM) program. He has written 8 books and 26 book chapters, and published more than 135 peer-reviewed papers in respected national and international journals. He has received several awards, including the Prof. S.B. Saksena Award in Life sciences (1999), Danisco India Award in Probiotics& Enzyme Technology (2010), Indo-US Professorship Award (2014) by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) and American Society of Microbiology (ASM), AMI-Alembic Award (2015), and Faculty Research Award for Top 10 Most outstanding Researchers in the field of Immunology and Microbiology (2018). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Microbiological Sciences, of the Biotech Research Society of India (FBRS), and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (FNAAS). In 2011 he was selected as Scientist in the Southern Ocean Expedition.

He also serves as a Guest Professor at the South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China. He is Editor of the Indian Journal of Microbiology (Springer), Associate Editor of 3Biotech (Springer), Guest Editor of Current Protein and Peptide Science (Bentham Science), Editor of Protein and Peptide Letters, and Scientific Reports (Nature), Associate Editor of BMC Microbiology, and Academic Editor of PLOS One.

Chapter 1. The sugar-nucleotide providing enzyme, opportunity and future in the antibody and peptide medicine area.- Chapter 2. The Next Generation of Microalgae-Based Products.- Chapter 3. Advanced techniques for enzymatic and chemical bleaching for pulp and paper industries.- Chapter 4. Commercial bioinoculant development: Techniques and challenges.- Chapter 5. Protein nanostructures with purpose-designed properties in biotechnology and medicine.- Chapter 6. Recent advances in biosynthetic production of Biopigments from microlagae.- Chapter 7. Revealing of the features of the oxidative enzyme production by white-rot basidiomycetes during fermentation of plant raw materials.- Chapter 8.  Endophytic bacterial applications in phytoremediation of organic pollutants and toxic metals.- Chapter 9. Biotechnological interventions for Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) based biofertilizer: technological perspectives.- Chapter 10. Probiotics and prebiotics: Techniques used and its relevance.- Chapter 11. Techniques of Evaluation of the chemical and microbiological quality of the coastal environment.- Chapter 12. Enzyme engineering techniques for biotechnological applications.