Venom: The New Miracle of Medicine

Venom is giving scientists surprising new ways to fight disease and control the body’s internal machinery.

Prof Glenn King holds a rainforest scorpion under UV black light in the insectary at Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience [Russell Shakespeare]

STUDYING VENOM is a risky business. Ask Bryan Fry: he’s been bitten by venomous creatures 27 times — mostly by snakes on land and at sea, and by box jellyfish and stingrays. He’s also amassed 23 broken bones, 400 stitches and three concussions, once breaking his back in three places and spending months in hospital relearning to walk.

But the herpetologist — the branch of zoology dealing with reptiles and amphibians — is no masochist: it’s just that to study venom, you have to go into the wild to collect the critters in their native habitats. And not only can venomous animals be dangerous, they often live in remote locations, prefer to stay hidden and, when found, can be devilishly difficult to ensnare.

It may be dangerous, but it is necessary, because without venom, you can’t make antivenom. And no antivenom works across all species: each antivenom needs to match the toxins of a particular species. To make matters worse, toxins can vary widely even within the same species, depending on its environment and prey. And without a detailed understanding the toxins in a venom, you can’t predict how the human body will react, what organs will be affected and how to…