Can insect venom be harnessed to fight cancer?
Bees give us honey, painful stings…and cancer-fighting drugs, if scientists can figure out how to extract and deliver the venom’s cancer-fighting compounds. University of Illinois Bioengineering Professor Dipanjan Pan says he has developed nanoparticles that can carry insect toxins directly to tumors, sparing the rest of the body from nasty side effects, including damage to the heart, bleeding underneath the skin and unwanted clotting.