The Duck-Billed Platypus is an extremely bizarre animal. He is one of the very few survivors of the group of mammals that is laying eggs. It has venomous fins, and it looks like a hybrid of a duck and a rodent. Now, another interesting feature of this unusual looking animal has been discovered: its milk contains an unique protein that can help us fight bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.
Because bacteria have evolved to resist antibiotics, millions of people are exposed to infections. A team of researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia (CSIRO) and Dreakin University are looking for a solution for this problem for years now, and they’ve began to use their creativity in order to find ways to break the bacterial resistance barrier. They have discovered that a solution to the problem can be based on Duck-Billed Platypus’ milk. They wanted to pay a closer attention to a protein found in Duck-Billed Platypus’ milk in order to observe its mechanisms.
Once they observed the protein structure closely, they were surprised to see that it was unique. Using it, they could be able to develop new drugs that will overcome the antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
