Alligator aid to combat superbugs

It's perhaps not the first place you would think to search for powerful antibiotics, but alligator's blood could be a great source of novel compounds that could defeat strains of bacteria resistant to conventional antibiotics. Biochemist Mark Merchant of McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, has investigated a range of proteins found in alligator blood that might one day be used to fight serious infections associated with diabetic ulcers, severe burns, and so-called 'superbugs', such as multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), as well as fungal infections such as Candida albicans.