Fake Bite

It sounds like a comic book villain’s evil plan: create an artificial biological device that can produce the deadly toxins found in snake venom. But it’s actually a new approach from scientists trying to develop methods to counter the dangers of snakebite, which kills over 100,000 people each year. Researchers have developed a technique to grow miniature, simplified versions of venom glands, as organoids, which produce and secrete toxins naturally found in venom. They can produce organoids to match various species, which provide a reliable source of venom for studying – much easier than keeping an army of deadly snakes in your lab. The organoids (pictured, with fluorescence microscopy used to highlight different features of the 3D structure) will be a useful tool for analysing the underlying biology of venom, developing antidotes to it, and maybe even harnessing its potent powers for new drug development.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Video by Ravian van Ineveld, Princess Máxima Center
• Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
• Copyright held by the Princess Máxima Center
• Research published in Cell, January 2020