Low-cost antivenom powder for all types of snakebites_Research update

Today's Times of India reports an interesting update about use of bacterium to naturally develop a low-cost antivenom powder for all types of snakebites particularly in rural areas.

Anurag S Rathore, professor, department of chemical engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), started the project in 2014. 

Rathore is collaborating with a researcher at San Jose State University to biologically produce a molecule which can neutralise the poison and be stored at room temperature. The targeted potential cost is $10 per dose, he adds. "We want it to be a powder which can be inhaled and is easy to store and carry." 

At the centre of the research is a stable molecule - a peptide, known to deactivate the venom. A solution based on the peptide segment, called lethal toxin neutralising factor or LTNF, was patented three-four decades ago.

IIT Delhi filed an application for a provisional patent for the process of producing the peptide in India in March 2015.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Reasearch-round-up-sting-study/ articleshow /47763597.cms