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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 ...
