See the University of Melbourne's Medical Museum and learn about venomous animals, particularly snakes and jellyfish, and the development of antivenins
See the University of Melbourne's Medical Museum and learn about venomous animals, particularly snakes and jellyfish, and the development of antivenins
A discussion of venomous animals—particularly snakes and jellyfish—in Australia and the ongoing search for effective antivenins.
© University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
ANNIE RAHILLY: Human fascination with the power of venom and the quest for universal antidote is deeply woven into the history of medicine. Australia has some of the world's most venomous creatures. Here at the Medical Museum at the University of Melbourne, an exhibition looks at the connections that made Victoria the home of anti-venom research resulting in major discoveries.
JACQUELINE HEALY: This show is exciting because it's about the beginning of Melbourne Medical School, and it was a great opportunity to bring together all the related research bodies. So what we did was, in fact, contact people like Melbourne Museum, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, and the CSL, who was instrumental in this discovery of anti-venom, the snake poisoning.
KEN WINKEL: The story we're telling here today is a very deep, ancient story, going a long way back-- millions of years-- in the interaction between venomous creatures, their prey, and potential predators of them. We have this ancient relationship that is a mix of potent fear as to what this creature can do, as well as a fascination with the power of that creature and how it has power of life and death over creatures through its venom.
HEALY: One of the most exciting objects that we borrowed was from Museum Victoria, which is a taipan in ethanol. It was captured by a young snake catcher. He called bitten, but kept his cool, put that taipan in a hessian bag, and sent that back to Melbourne for milking. It was the first taipan to be milked. Within two years, CSL had discovered-- with the help of [INAUDIBLE] -- the anti-venom for taipan snake.
WINKEL: The university has had an interest in this subject since the very inception of the medical school-- from the very first dean of medicine, there's been an interest in trying to understand, how do these creatures do harm to us? How can we neutralize that harm? And maybe we can-- through understanding the power of substances produced by, particularly, snakes-- maybe we can improve not only the health of the victims but also maybe make some other discoveries about the basic nature of biology, about our bodies, in health and disease, as well as potentially have substances that could help treat other non-venom-related diseases.
Part of our quest is to help our near neighbors, particularly in southeast Asia, East Asia, that have the greatest burden of, particularly, snake bite in the world. We have other venomous creatures, particularly in our oceans-- there are certain types of jellyfish we're still trying to investigate-- a little thing called the irukandji jellyfish. We know that this is, now-- the irukandji syndrome-- the number one cause of hospital admission for marine stings in Australia. So it's a bigger problem than the other marine stings, yet we don't have a specific antidote yet, we don't fully understand the syndrome, and we don't know how many different types of jellyfish cause this problem, not only in northern Australia but through the Indo-Pacific. So we still have challenges to meet.
HEALY: What we have here, with the story of venom and the development of anti-venom is the research story of Melbourne University that brings together the cultural collections from the major research institutions that were part of that journey. And that journey continues today.
JACQUELINE HEALY: This show is exciting because it's about the beginning of Melbourne Medical School, and it was a great opportunity to bring together all the related research bodies. So what we did was, in fact, contact people like Melbourne Museum, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, and the CSL, who was instrumental in this discovery of anti-venom, the snake poisoning.
KEN WINKEL: The story we're telling here today is a very deep, ancient story, going a long way back-- millions of years-- in the interaction between venomous creatures, their prey, and potential predators of them. We have this ancient relationship that is a mix of potent fear as to what this creature can do, as well as a fascination with the power of that creature and how it has power of life and death over creatures through its venom.
HEALY: One of the most exciting objects that we borrowed was from Museum Victoria, which is a taipan in ethanol. It was captured by a young snake catcher. He called bitten, but kept his cool, put that taipan in a hessian bag, and sent that back to Melbourne for milking. It was the first taipan to be milked. Within two years, CSL had discovered-- with the help of [INAUDIBLE] -- the anti-venom for taipan snake.
WINKEL: The university has had an interest in this subject since the very inception of the medical school-- from the very first dean of medicine, there's been an interest in trying to understand, how do these creatures do harm to us? How can we neutralize that harm? And maybe we can-- through understanding the power of substances produced by, particularly, snakes-- maybe we can improve not only the health of the victims but also maybe make some other discoveries about the basic nature of biology, about our bodies, in health and disease, as well as potentially have substances that could help treat other non-venom-related diseases.
Part of our quest is to help our near neighbors, particularly in southeast Asia, East Asia, that have the greatest burden of, particularly, snake bite in the world. We have other venomous creatures, particularly in our oceans-- there are certain types of jellyfish we're still trying to investigate-- a little thing called the irukandji jellyfish. We know that this is, now-- the irukandji syndrome-- the number one cause of hospital admission for marine stings in Australia. So it's a bigger problem than the other marine stings, yet we don't have a specific antidote yet, we don't fully understand the syndrome, and we don't know how many different types of jellyfish cause this problem, not only in northern Australia but through the Indo-Pacific. So we still have challenges to meet.
HEALY: What we have here, with the story of venom and the development of anti-venom is the research story of Melbourne University that brings together the cultural collections from the major research institutions that were part of that journey. And that journey continues today.