Sea snail venom could lead to better insulin for diabetics
A species of venomous sea snail preys on fish by emitting plumes of venom that stun and paralyze its prey. But the venom might be useful to humans, too. (Pixabay/)Most people don’t have occasion to think about the many unstudied species of animals who live on the seafloor. But one species, the Conus geographus, has been particularly interesting to scientists recently.This species of venomous sea snail preys on fish by emitting plumes of venom that stun and paralyze its prey, allowing time for the snail to slime along and eat the fish while it's still alive. But the venom might be useful to humans, too.“Inside the venom, there are hundreds of [different] molecules,” says Danny Hung-Chieh Chou, author of a new study that took a deep dive into the molecular contents of the venom. “One of the molecules looks very similar to [human] insulin.” After further scrutiny, the researchers found...