Sheep blowfly larvae are used to treat diabetic ulcers, bedsores and gangrenous wounds and are a useful alternative for antibiotics. Cyclosporine is one medicinal chemical in fungi. The properties of spider silk are nothing new to scientists, but the possibilities of actually being able to put the characteristics of that silk to use are now becoming more realistic than ever before. As the Discovery Channel famously put it, the world is just awesome. Animal skin has long been used in the treatment of burns all around the world, … 7 Living organisms that aid modern medicine in the weirdest ways 1) Giant Yellow Israeli Scorpion They don’t really have much going for them, but you might like them a little more once you know what cancer busting potential their venom has to offer. Currently, the use of microbes is not limited to the use in vaccinations. Genetic engineering can be done with plants, animals, or bacteria and other very small organisms. T-601, the synthetic version of the chemical found in the scorpion’s sting could help surgeons fight tumours as well as detect them. And no, this doesn’t mean we’re all going to be swinging from the buildings like Spiderman in a few years (not yet anyway), but ‘bio-silk’, as it’s known in the industry, can offer a lot more to modern man. It does not apply to cell-based and tissue-based therapies that are defined as biologicals in the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 and its amendments, and which are therefore regulated under the Biologicals Regulatory Framework. When joined to a fluorescent marker, Cy5.5 will emit light in the Infra-red spectrum thereby illuminating whole tumours and even small clusters containing as little as a few hundred cells. They live and reproduce like ordinary bacteria, but they also do a bit of extra duty, and produce human proteins for … But there’s still more. Privacy policy, Nurture in nature: Top 5 species used in medicine. Researchers hope to be able to repeat the same process in the future with alfalfa plants as these have a high protein content and are widely distributed, therefore enabling vast quantities of silk to be mass produced. Let’s get this ball rolling with Scorpions. Vaccines are substances derived from microorganisms used to immunize against disease. LAL is now used worldwide as a standard screening test for bacterial contamination. And there’s more. Various organisms are engineered for use as factories to produce the drug product. But this sticky perspiration still has more to offer. Now, these and other medicines can be made by specially-modified bacteria, called transgenic bacteria. For example, one of the first mutations Morgan isolated is known as white; flies with this mutation have white eyes (instead of red)9. It is used against bronchitis, anaemia, urinary problems, asthma and also as a diuretic. But somehow spider alfalfa just doesn’t sound quite as cool…. Aloe vera is the thick juice of the aloe, a type of plant that comes from tropical Africa but is also cultivated elsewhere. However, unlike the human hormone, Exendin-4 could remain effective in the body for a lot longer and therefore had incredible potential to benefit people suffering from Type 2 diabetes. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA). Not bad for a scaly dribbling reptile! Antibiotics are substances produced by microorganisms that kill or inhibit other microbes which are used in the treatment of infectious disease. Upon closer inspection (and you thought your job was bad) they realised the animals were not bleeding or even sweating for that matter, they were in fact secreting a thick red substance from special glands under the skin. Evolution has spent a very long time creating some ingenious solutions to some of life’s greatest problems and it hopefully won’t be long until we unlock even more of nature’s hidden treasures. Crabs are supposedly only bled once and then released back into the wild so let’s just hope that we don’t drive these incredibly useful critters down to dangerous levels for our own purposes (because we’ve never done that before). Study of the fish skin revealed it is high in collagen and has a similar moisture content to human skin. Animal skin has long been used in the treatment of burns all around the world, but in Brazil their three skin banks only meet one percent of the national demand. 1 - Fungus - Pennicillin is still used as an antibiotic for non-resistant infections. The Australian National Fish Collection (ANFC) is a resource for many fields of science. As a result, Byetta has brought relief to 17 million sufferers of type 2 diabetes in the US alone and what’s more, further research of Exendin-4 is now showing exciting potential for advancements in memory disorder treatments such as ADHD and Alzheimers. It may still be a while before doctors can use this tumour detection process though, as research is still being undertaken to discover a suitable dye that will be approved by the FDA. Good examples are the bacteria that have developed to break down oil in the water. For more information about any of our articles, or to find out more about the services we offer, visit our site here. Take these compounds, mix them with some sticky hippo mucus and you’ve got a substance made up of tiny structures which absorb light by breaking up its individual molecules. Antibiotics are produced in nature by molds such asPenicillium and bacteria such as Streptomyces and Bacillus. But seriously, once the guys in the lab find a way to mimic the properties of this magical sweat, we’re going to have a lot to thank them for. Credit: Calibas, GNU Free documentation license. Medicine is a continuously growing field with new discoveries occurring almost everyday. The problem? In other words, female goats are making silk in their milk. The first recorded intentional use of maggots for wound cleaning is thought to have been when Confederate army surgeon JF Zacharias applied them during the American Civil War. No, I’m not talking about some 8 legged goat-spider mutation that clings from giant webs on the ceiling and eats your clothes, I’m talking about transgenetic goats – obviously! Hippos. See, it may not be too long before you’re sat on the beach on a baking hot day, soaking up the rays and smearing their sweat all over your body. Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. 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