The special blood of the lugworm

They have a set of gills to breathe underwater and grow to be about 25cm in size. It is their respiration which holds the key, more specifically the way in which oxygen is carried in their blood. Back in 2000, researcher Dr Franck Zal started looking into the miracles of Mother Nature, he knew that biology has the secret solution to many of our medicinal problems. He spent many weekends on the beaches in Brittany and the humble lugworm took his notice. The lugworm can hold its breath for six hours when the tide goes out, and Dr Zal wished to know more. He began looking at lugworms to research their properties, ultimately to see if there could be a secret to be unlocked in their blood. For context, this discovery was of real importance as in 2003 Madcow disease and HIV had led to a crisis in the shortage of blood supply across the globe.<a href="https://medium.com/discovery-matters/the-special-blood-of-the-humble-lugworm-a81e85cd141a#_ftn5" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">[5]</a> <a href="https://medium.com/discovery-matters/the-special-blood-of-the-humble-lugworm-a81e85cd141a">Read More</a>