Harnessing the Antimicrobial Properties of Komodo Dragon Blood—Monique van Hoek & Barney Bishop—Antimicrobial Discovery Research
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2019
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Antibiotic resistance and multi-drug resistant pathogens pose a serious danger to the health of humans and the ability to treat life-threatening infections. Since 2009, a bacteriologist and peptide chemist, Monique van Hoek and Barney Bishop respectively, have been joining forces to address this growing threat by attempting to identify natural sources of peptides millions of years of evolution in the making—peptides that provide reptiles with robust, innate immunity that allows them to survive loss of limbs, open wounds, and the consumption of decaying corpses without any negative repercussions. In particular, Hoek and Bishop have been analyzing very small amounts of Komodo dragon blood, and after testing hundreds of peptides against a number of bacteria, they've isolated and synthetically stabilized one peptide that has shown antibacterial, anti-biofilm, and wound-healing properties. They join the podcast today to discuss all the ins and outs of their research and the potential it holds for the future of antibiotic resistance and human health.
Tune in to hear the full conversation and visit adr.gmu.edu to learn more.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the Future Tech Podcast with Richard Jacobs. |
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| 0:58.0 | Thank you. Hello this is Richard Jacobs with the Future Tech and Future Tech |
| 1:08.0 | Health Podcasts and have Monique Van Hook and Barney Bishop we're going to be |
| 1:12.3 | talking about an unusual thing called |
| 1:15.0 | Dragon's Blood, literally probably from a Komodo Dragon is my guess, and how it's actually |
| 1:20.6 | being used to intervene and help some diseases. |
| 1:25.0 | So it's going to be really interesting to talk about this. |
| 1:27.0 | So, Monique and Barney, thanks for coming. |
| 1:29.1 | How you doing? |
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