Parse data from keyword based materials data file with Python

Question

I have a keyword based materials data file. I want to parse data from this file and create variables and matrices to work on them in a Python script. The material file may have comment lines in the very top starting with the string "**", I simply want to ignore these and parse the data on other lines that follows a keyword of the form *keyword_1, and also their comma-delimited parameters of the form param_1=param1.

What is the fastest and easiest way to parse data from this kind of keyword based text file with Python? Can I use pandas for this and how?

below is a sample input material file: alloy_1.nam

*************************************************
**               ALLOY_1 MATERIAL DATA
*************************************************
*MATERIAL,NAME=ALLOY_1
*ELASTIC,TYPE=ISO
2.08E5,0.3,291.
2.04E5,0.3,422.
1.96E5,0.3,589.
1.85E5,0.3,755.
1.74E5,0.3,922.
1.61E5,0.3,1089.
1.52E5,0.3,1220.
*EXPANSION,TYPE=ISO,ZERO=293.
13.5E-6,291.
13.6E-6,422.
13.9E-6,589.
14.2E-6,755.
14.7E-6,922.
15.5E-6,1089.
16.4E-6,1200.
*DENSITY
7.92E-9
*CONDUCTIVITY
10.,273.
18.,873.
27.,1373.
*SPECIFIC HEAT
450.e6,273.
580.e6,873.
710.e6,1373.