LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (KPLC) -- In the bayous of Southwest
Louisiana and Southeast Texas, researchers have discovered a
potential medicinal breakthrough from alligators. Alligator
blood is showing to be a potent antibiotic in lab testing at
McNeese State University. These keepers of the bayou are known
for their tenacity, but behind the alligator's piercing eyes and
sharp teeth is an immune system that is as ferocious as the
primitive creature. "They've really put a lot of selective
pressure on themselves to develop this tremendous immune system
that we've been studying the past 10 or 12 years," said MSU
biochemistry professor, Dr. Mark Merchant. Merchant handles
gators like they are his own children. He has been bitten,
scarred - but never deterred in his quest to prove what it is
that makes gators survive and thrive, even in bacteria and
fungi-filled environments. "I've seen alligators with huge, huge
injuries - missing limbs, missing big parts of their tail ...
apparently healthy," said Merchant.