WOOLLY MAMMOTHS REFRESH ANTIBIOTICS

Extinct creatures help fight superbugs

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SCIENTISTS desperate to develop new antibiotics are looking to the ancient past to find them — in the DNA of the long-extinct woolly mammoth!

The last of the giant beasts, which were relatives of elephants, vanished 4,000 years ago. But a compound found in their genes, known as mammuthusin, has been shown to eradicate antibiotic-resistant superbugs in lab experiments, says the University of Pennsylvania's César de la Fuente, who helped discover the molecule.