Identifying Potential Antibiotics in Snake, Spider Venom

Penn researchers have identified hundreds of potential antibiotic compounds extracted from the venom of snakes, spiders, and scorpions. By using artificial intelligence, their work took just a few hours, where it previously would have taken decades. César de la Fuente, PhD, a Presidential Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Microbiology, Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Chemistry, called poisons “a vast library of bioactive molecules, largely untapped, and our new paper reveals just how powerful they can be.”