For nearly half a century, “Holy Toledo!” was his catch phrase. Then in late October, legendary Oakland A’s announcer, Bill King, died at age 78 of complications after having a successful hip surgery, according to The Associated Press.

When it’s said that someone died of “complications” in a non-life threatening surgery, death can almost always be attributed to an infection of an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, said chemistry professor Wilfred van der Donk.

But the same peptide that prevents processed cheese from spoiling on store shelves may help the human body fight new forms of bacteria that are becoming resistant to current antibiotics.

Research being done by van der Donk is finding different, man-made structures of the peptide Nisin that could help the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These compounds, called lantibiotics, have bacteria fighting properties that come from having a different chemical structure.

“I have become quite interested to see if these (lantibiotics) can be found not only as a food preservative but also as a pharmaceutical,” van der Donk said.

While the structure of Nisin was found in the 1970’s, van der Donk’s major breakthrough came about two years ago. This is when he and his two graduate assistants, Lisa Cooper and Amanda McClerren, were able to create these new, different compounds in a laboratory environment. In March, they discovered how to create the lantibiotic Nisin in the laboratory. In October, they found that with the right enzymes they could create a new, more stable form.

“We really started to work on those (compounds) that aren’t known yet,” van der Donk said. “(We) wanted to start a new lantibiotic that would have a high possibility of new use for humans.”

There are over 60 different forms of Nisin with more coming out every year, said van der Donk. However, many of these are not stable in the human body because of their low pH level, meaning they are too acidic and do no last long in the human blood stream.

“Really what you want is to have some control over the molecules,” van der Donk said, “so that you can control the structure; you can fine-tune the activity so that you can increase the bioavailability.”

Other academic labs are working on different aspects of antibiotic research, but most companies and labs remain overseas. This is because there is not a high demand for antibiotic research.

“It (antibiotic-resistant bacteria) is a problem,” van der Donk said. “But right now, it’s not a problem that is so large that there is enough money to be made by the pharmaceutical companies.”

It costs, on average, $1.2 billion and over eight years to fund a new biotechnology drug, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

A place of academic research on these and other experimental topics are not for the purpose of developing a new drug, said van der Donk. They are laying the ground work research so that when there is more of a need for a new drug, the pharmaceutical companies will not be as far behind on the development.

“What we really want to find out now is how well does it (new forms of Nisin) work against multi-resistant strains, how stable is it,” van der Donk said. “We have the molecules now so that we can start thinking how it performs right now and what can be improved.”