A new medicine source: wallaby milk

A novel discovery has been done by an Australian team of scientists who have found that the milk of the female tammar wallabies contains a molecule that is 100 times more effective against bacteria such a E.coli than the most potent form of penicillin. This could be the answer for super drugs with antibiotic properties.

The study is published in latest issue of New Scientist. Research director in animal genetics and genomics for the Victoria Department of Primary Industries in Melbourne, Dr Ben Cocks said, "Because baby tammar wallabies are born with a heart, but no lungs, a huge amount of development happens in the pouch and during that time they just rely on milk". He further added that the molecule in the wallaby milk, called AGG01, is effective against a range of bacteria and one type of fungus. "They don't make antibodies until (they are) about 100 days old and we asked how were they avoiding infection and that was really the inspiration for the discovery of AGG01. It is produced in first stage of lactation of wallabies, but is not present in human and cows or other mammals. It can be synthesised very easily. We can make quite large quantities synthetically to test against bacteria - and so far it is very effective."