Snake Venom Gland Organoids Produce Functional Toxins

Stem cells from nine snake species respond to tissue culturing techniques previously used only on mouse and human stem cells.

Amy Schleunes

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Aminiaturized version of the snake venom gland that secretes functionally active toxins can be grown from stem cells, researchers describe January 23 in Cell.

Scientists have previously cultured these simplified tissues, called organoids, from mouse and human stem cells, including “minibrains” that model neuronal networks, but this study is the first to show that the same techniques work with snake tissue.

Hans Clevers, a principal investigator at the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research, and his team used human growth factors to culture the snake venom organoids, reports STAT, but there was one critical difference from mammalian organoids: temperature. The snake organoids needed to be kept a few degrees colder than cultures from mice and humans, Clevers tells STAT, because reptiles are cold-blooded.

The experiment started with three of Clevers’s grad students who wondered whether they could grow organoids from other ...

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Meet the Author

Amy Schleunes
A former intern at The Scientist, Amy studied neurobiology at Cornell University and later earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She is a Los Angeles–based writer, editor, and communications strategist who collaborates on nonfiction books for Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and also teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University CTY. Her favorite projects involve sharing the insights of science and medicine.
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