The black mamba is one of Africa’s most dangerous and feared snakes. Most people would kill it on sight. But in the tiny country of Swaziland, one husband and wife team has taken a different approach to the mamba. They’ve initiated a study that they hope will change perceptions of what they feel is the world’s most misunderstood snake. This film premiered November 8, 2009.

Swaziland resident Clifton Koen doesn’t really care for snakes, but his wife, Thea Litschka-Koen, is crazy about them. With her husband’s sometimes reluctant help, she has endeavored to change attitudes about black mambas and other snakes found in the area. In addition to starting the nation’s only reptile park, devoted to educating the public and providing a refuge for the animals, the two have become the region’s go-to experts for safe, humane snake removal from homes, schools, resorts and workplaces. In the course of catching and relocating any number of snakes per day, Thea and Clifton give impromptu lessons about the snakes, covering fact and fiction, and do their best to prevent any unnecessary casualties – human or reptile.

In addition to their other efforts, Thea and Clifton developed a program designed to track black mambas in the wild for the first time and to gain new insights into their behavior. With the help of a snake expert from Johannesburg, they were able to surgically insert radio transmitters in a number of captured black mambas, allowing them to follow the snakes after their release. If their research pays off, they may be able to show that their relocations are working, successfully removing snakes from residential areas for the long term, and thereby bringing some relief to the locals and some respite for the snakes.

Black Mamba premiered October 3, 2010.

Photo by Andrew Yarme © Tigress Productions

There are thousands of different animals on this planet whose venom contains components that may be able to help mankind. Venom can potentially be used as coagulants, anti-coagulants, pesticides, pain killers, and cures for diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Meet the reptile-chasers and scientists who are researching the venom cure. It’s risky, but rewarding, work. Buy the DVD. This film premiered April 5, 2005.

In the dead of night, a small boat slides across Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria. On board are researchers Bryan Fry and his wife Alexia, both of whom stand ready, equipped with bright spotlights and large nets. They peer into the dark water. But it is not fish they are after — they are searching for sea snakes.

As NATURE’s The Venom Cure reveals, their goal is to collect, study, and catalog the chemical characteristics of venom from sea snakes. They have already identified a powerful anticoagulant that could one day be used to treat potentially fatal coronary conditions.

Eventually, on this night, the Frys catch a host of the sea reptiles. They carefully “milk” each of its deadly venom, then return the slithery creatures to their watery home.

After catching the sea snakes, the Frys carefully “milk” each of its deadly venom before returning them to the ocean.

Bryan Fry has milked thousands of snakes during his career, and has been bitten more than a dozen times. Luckily, he’s lived to tell about it, and all bites aside, he continues to study venom.

“There is something peculiarly fascinating in the use of a deadly toxin as a life-saving medicine,” says Fry, a Deputy Director of the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne. “The natural pharmacology that exists within animal venoms is a tremendous resource waiting to be tapped.”

Once back in the laboratory, Fry will carefully analyze the venom, which is essentially specialized toxic saliva that attacks a prey animal’s organs. Some snake venoms target the brain, shutting it down, while others destroy liver or blood cells.

How did snakes develop such specialized chemical weapons? Fry’s research offers some insights.

In a paper published in the March 2005 issue of the scientific journal GENOME RESEARCH, Fry and colleagues note that the active ingredient in snake venom is often an “evil twin” version of chemical proteins that the snake’s own organs need to function. Over the last 80 million years, snakes “learned” to adapt these proteins and convert them into toxins. So a protein that helps a snake’s liver function became a weapon able to destroy the liver of the snake’s prey.

Overall, Fry’s team found that some snake toxin types originated from proteins normally made by the snake’s brain, eye, lung, liver, or other organs. Gradually, the toxins were produced in tandem with saliva, to create their deadly bite.

“Snakes are incredibly inventive,” Fry says. “The wide-ranging origins of snake venom explains the amazing diversity of ways that snakes can kill their prey and why they have so much potential use in medical research.”

Eventually, Fry hopes that his work will help researchers identify chemicals that could be used to treat everything from liver disease to brain disorders.

NOTE: Never intentionally provoke a poisonous snake to bite you. This video discusses early-stage medical research, not currently viable options for treatment. If you or someone you know is suffering from cancer, you are strongly urged to seek professional medical care.

You know those beautiful little tropical frogs with electric blue or orange markings? A single touch of their skin could kill you.

Have you ever seen an elegant cone snail shell lying on the beach? Well, beware! It hides a poison harpoon that is deadly.

And watch out! Those snakes and lizards could be armed with venom and toxic saliva.

Amazingly, they may also hold cures to many human diseases. Scientists have discovered that natural poisons, toxins, and venoms contain chemicals that can be used to create an array of drugs for treating everything from chronic pain to cancer. For instance, the cone shell’s venom, packed with nerve-debilitating conotoxins, provides the basis for a new painkiller. Contortrostatin, a component found in copperhead venom, is being used to attack breast cancer cells and to prevent cancer from spreading.

Call it the poison paradox — or The Venom Cure.

To order a copy of The Venom Cure, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for The Venom Cure was originally posted April 2005.