BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Most people would rather avoid the alligators living along the Indian River Lagoon, but a group of scientists from the University of Louisville’s Wise Laboratory of Environmental & Genetic Toxicology want to take a closer look at the apex predator to help heal us all.
“So, we’re going to do two things. One is we’re interested in how much pollutant is in their blood. So, we’re looking at metals or organic pollutants like PFAS,” Dr. John Wise, Professor at the U of L Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology told WFTV. “We’re also looking at DNA damage and how they may have higher or lower levels of DNA damage based on stress in the environment. And then comparing that to what we know from humans to see if the gators are at risk or if the gators are suggesting that humans are at risk.”
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PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, are found in a wide range of products and take a long time to break down in the environment.
Wise sought out the expertise of Frank “Alligator Robb” Robb to help get blood and tissue samples for his research.
Once the alligators are in hand, the entire process takes about 15 minutes before the reptiles are released.
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Robb was a renowned Brevard County gator trapper before he founded the nonprofit Environmental Education Awareness Research Support and Services to promote environmental education awareness and research support.
“The University of Louisville is specifically not only looking at heavy metals and forever chemicals, but we’re looking at chromosome breaks as well. So, alligators cannot repair every chromosome, but quite a few of them and do it a lot more methodically and better than we can,” Robb told WFTV. “So, we’re looking at those breaks, and they’re specifically focusing on human lung cancer, but those breaks and looking at the benefits of that. So, it’s there will be some major breakthroughs, I believe, and will come from alligators.”
Robb and Wise are working with the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park to compare their wild alligator samples to the 24 species of crocodilians at the Alligator Farm.
“You can’t necessarily get funding to study a project across species. They can come to one location and get samples. We just...we don’t do anything invasive but get samples from multiple species or do observations that can compare and contrast,” Gen Anderson, the General Curator at the Alligator farm said.
WFTV asked Wise if he hoped his research could one day lead to a cancer cure.
“That’s the long-term goal. The short-term goal is trying to find better prevention methods like,” he said. “So, if I could tell you what a safe level is and what a safe level isn’t. But also, drug intervention methods so that if you do get cancer, there’s better treatment solutions available.”
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