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t m c ยป p u l s e | d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 5 34 34 Saving Lives with Snake Venom R ice University scientists recently created a new nanofiber hydrogel containing an enzyme found in snake venom to quickly stop bleeding in a mat- ter of seconds, providing a potentially useful solution for surgical patients. Lead author and researcher Vivek Kumar, Ph.D., and Rice professor of chemistry and bioengineering Jeff Hartgerink, Ph.D., published their study in the American Chemical Society Biomaterials Science and Engineering journal, where they showed how the enzyme batroxobin, produced by South American pit vipers, can be used to clot blood in six seconds. The study combined Hartgerink and Kumar's decade-long pursuit of developing an injectable hydrogel scaffold designed to heal wounds and stimulate natural tissue growth with Kumar's idea to incorporate a blood-clotting component. "It's interesting that you can take something so deadly and turn it into something that has the potential to save lives," Hartgerink said. For ophidiophobiacs and skeptics, rest assured: There were no actual snakes involved in this study. "If you look at the popular media that's taken hold of this thing, you would think we had a laboratory full of snakes," Hartgerink said. In real- ity, the scientists were able to obtain batroxobin necessary for the study in a way that didn't require handling any scaly adders. "We're not purifying it from snake venom, so we don't have concerns about exogenous toxins, byproducts or what have you," Kumar said, explain- ing that they eliminate risk of toxicity by creating it in a lab, recombinantly expressing the enzyme in E. coli. Hartgerink said many people are surprised to see the words "snake venom" in their paper, but batroxobin's B y S h a n l e y C h i e n Top: Vivek Kumar, Ph.D. and Jeff Hartgerink, Ph.D., display a vial of hydrogel they developed to stop bleeding in surgical patients. Below: Rice graduate research assistant Navindee Charya Wickremasinghe works on a solid phase peptide synthesizer in Hartgerink's lab. RICE UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS HAVE DEVELOPED A HYDROGEL THAT COULD PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN SAVING SURGICAL PATIENTS' LIVES. THE SPECIAL INGREDIENT: AN ENZYME FOUND IN SNAKE VENOM.