Alligator wounds are a remarkable thing. Within only 12-24 hours, gators' torn tissue begins a healing process that takes five days to start in humans. And even though gators swim in microbe-infested waters, their wounds almost never become infected. This healing ability caught the eye of Mark Merchant, a researcher at Lake Charles, Louisiana-based McNeese State University. "I just grew up fishing in gator country and was curious to learn about their immune system," he says. "I didn't set out to discover a new antibiotic."
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