Panda Peptides
I figure most people are familiar with the Panda. A type of Chinese bear that can’t be bothered to have sex for procreation.
It seems there is another reason to find them odd – and special. Dr Xiuwen Yan, of the Life Sciences College at Nanjing Agricultural University, made an exciting discovery while studying panda DNA. Dr Yan and other researchers found a compound known as cathelicidin-AM which could be extremely important to humanity.
This compound is a powerful antibiotic that is able to kill many bacteria and fungi – even currently drug resistant strains in a fraction of the time needed currently. Dr Yan says,
Under the pressure of increasing microorganisms with drug resistance against conventional antibiotics, there is urgent need to develop new type of antimicrobial agents.
Gene-encoded antimicrobial peptides play an important role in innate immunity against noxious microorganisms. They cause much less drug resistance of microbes than conventional antibiotics.
This is good news all around until you consider the dwindling population of the panda bears. Thankfully, they have already been able to synthesize the cathelicidin-AM peptide in the lab.
In the future, they hope cathelicidin-AM can be used to fight superbugs or be used as a better antiseptic. Hooray for science. =)
It’s the End of the…
…world year and I feel fine. Been writing these little diddies on Dustin’s blog (mostly on time) for just over a year now. Time passes – friends come and go. Standard crap for me. Thank you for reading this.
See ya on in 2013. Oh, and be sure to tell your local 2012 apocalypse conspiracy theorist to fuck off. =)
Off to a party… Be safe and remember: A taxi is cheaper than a DUI!
~Wesley