**1. Introduction and Relevance**

Infectious diseases and cancer are leading causes of mortality and our ability to combat them is compromised due to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria and chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells. Combined with the scarcity of new classes of antibiotics due to the abandonment of antibacterial research by pharmaceutical companies (Williams and Bax, 2009) and the lengthy development time lines to market (Projan and Bradford, 2007), there is an urgent need for alternative therapeutics. Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAPs) have emerged as a promising source of novel therapeutics. Not only do they rapidly kill microbes and cancer cells, they also can modulate host innate immunity to augment clearance of microbes and promote tissue healing resulting from inflammation. Further‐ more, they are less prone to resistance than traditional antibiotics (McPhee and Hancock, 2005). Synthetic variants of naturally occurring CAPs, have been designed that exhibit great‐ er selectivity and stability. Here I summarize some of the key features of CAPs, directing the reader to recent pertinent reviews, and focus on characteristics of pleurocidin CAPs that make them attractive for clinical applications.
