Keanu Reeves has spoken out after a bacteria that’s basically a killing machine was named after him. Scientists at Germany’s Bio Pilot Plant used the actor’s name for a lab-created compound used to kill disease-causing fungi. “Keanumycins” is a lipopeptide — a molecule often used as an antibiotic and antifungal treatment.
The creation of the Keanu Reeves bacteria, as we’ll call it, was documented in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. “The lipopeptides kill so efficiently that we named them after Keanu Reeves because he, too, is extremely deadly in his roles,” said the study’s lead author, Sebastian Götze.
Reeves did a Reddit AMA on March 4 in which he responded to the Keanumycins creation after a fan inquired. “Researchers from Germany found a compound naturally produced by some type of bacteria that is so effective at killing fungi, they named it after you: keanumycins. What are your thoughts about that?” the poster asked.
Keanu Reeves is on board with having his own bacteria
AMA
Incidentally, Keanu Reeves is not only cool with having a bacteria named after him, he thinks it’s pretty awesome.
“They should’ve called it John Wick… but that’s pretty cool… and surreal for me,” he joked. “But thanks, scientist people! Good luck, and thank you for helping us.”
If you want to know what Keanumycins do, it can help fight fungi that infect plants, such as Botrytis cinerea. It can also get rid of other fungi that affect humans. However, at low levels, it’s not at all toxic to human cells, so it could come in handy in the creation of antimycotic medications. You know, just in case “The Last Of Us” comes true.
In the meantime, there’s still some more testing to be done on the discovery. However, given the scientists’ confidence in its ability to kill nasty fungal infections, I’d say it’s pretty promising.
