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Introduction

Discovery collections are designed for investigators looking for novel toxins with unique selectivities or modes of action and have also been used for many other purposes.

These are custom collections of diverse venoms, which may be provided from venoms that we have in stock, harvested from animals we are rearing or animals or animals that we can acquire from collecting or other breeders, importers and collectors. They may be from diverse families of spiders, scorpions, centipedes and insects or from specific phyla, such as tarantulas or scorpions.

Discovery Process

Every project is different and provides fresh challenges, though there is a general and simple pattern to most, at least in outline.

Discovery collections may be arbitrary, perhaps from a stock collection or whatever is available at the time or we may prepare a customized collection from specific groups according to the interests and requirements of the researchers.

The researchers evaluate, characterize and/or screen the venoms and let us know which venoms might be of interest and we work up plans for scaling up production for the them, if this might be needed in the future. In many cases, there may critical seasons or other factors and it may be prudent to do some additional breeding or collecting to insure supply, when and if needed.

Beyond this, we simply try to service research requirements as well as possible.

Please inquire for details.

Uses

Discovery collections have been useful in the discovery of many novel inhibitors and agonists of:

• Voltage activated sodium, potassium and calcium channels

• Stretch activated and acid sensitive ion channels

• Glutamate and capsaicin receptors.

They have also been used in the search for novel:

• Antimicrobials and nematocides

• Toxins that could be used in environmentally friendly biopesticides and novel modes of action or physiological targets for insecticides

• Novel diagnostics or targets for treating cancer, diabetes and epilepsy

and

• Validation pharmaceutical targets or modes of action