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Venom doc seeks little fangs
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by tigers9 on October 29, 2009
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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26268403-30417,00.html
Venom doc seeks little fangs
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Bernard Lane | October 28, 2009
Article from: The Australian
NEVER heard of the curl snake or De Vis' banded snake?
Bryan Fry, self-styled "venom doc" at the University of Melbourne, wants to change that. He and Wayne Hodgson, from Monash University, have won a $171,000 Discovery grant to investigate the toxicological peril and promise of Australia's lesser known venomous snakes.
"As the population centres spread outwards, snakes that aren't normally encountered aregoing to be encountered," Fry says.
Antivenene is made from familiar snakes: the taipan, death adder, brown snake, tiger snake, black snake, those that Fry calls "the usual suspects".
This may be little help if you're bitten by an unfamiliar species. "The venom may be so different that you might as well be just running water into the veins of the patient," he says.
But venom, suitably tweaked by modern medicine, may do other patients a power of good.
It was the venom of a Brazilian viper that led to the ACE inhibitor drugs for treatment of high blood pressure. Like the cobra, this viper has been milked for all it's worth. Hence the therapeutic promise of little-studied snakes.
"Novel snakes are going to have novel toxins, and you're more likely to find something new and interesting," Fry says.
Fry and Hodgson are a double act.
A biochemist, Fry likes to get out into the field and catch his own snakes. That way, he's likelier to find something new and take in the significance of its habitat.
Fry's interest is how venom proteins have evolved, while Hodgson, "an absolute wizard of pharmacology", picks apart the workings of the venom inthe lab.
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RE: Venom doc seeks little fangs
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by Crotalusssp on October 29, 2009
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Also, check out Dr. Fry's website. It has been updated and is very nice indeed.
Charles
http://www.venomdoc.com/venomdoc/Venomdoc.html
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