Revived Neanderthal and Denisovan peptides show antibiotic activity

A combination of computational and experimental techniques unveils ‘encrypted’ peptides in proteomes of ancient humans with potential as antibiotic agents

Neanderthal proteins could be a rich new source of medicinal molecules. The finding comes from researchers who have pioneered a technique called ‘molecular de-extinction’ by analysing the proteomes of ancient hominins. The work has already uncovered a series of peptides with antibiotic activity.