NO PROB-LLAMA: Llamas, camels, alpacas, and related animals produce antibodies that are smaller, more heat stable, and more insensitive to pH than typical mammalian counterparts, making them good potential candidates for HIV vaccine design.WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
In 1990, Dutch molecular biologist Theo Verrips began hunting for a new toothpaste formula. Having been one of the developers of the Clearblue pregnancy test, Verrips was already an antibody expert, so his superiors at Unilever asked him to add antibodies to toothpaste, where the molecules might be able to incapacitate harmful oral bacteria without contributing to growing antibiotic resistance. He and his colleagues managed to mix effective antibodies into the toothpaste, but it was unfortunately too expensive to manufacture on a commercial scale. Verrips convinced his bosses to let him experiment for one more year by telling them about a new antibody discovery.
The breakthrough Verrips mentioned was the 1989 discovery of a naturally small antibody. Students at the Free University of Brussels, reluctant ...
