The Sloths That Could Cure Cancer: Bio-Prospecting in Panama
Posted
July 7, 2014
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757,998
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July 7, 2014
757,998
7,364
1,344
1.15%
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20:57Now PlayingVICE News host Thomas Morton swings from the trees with an international team of scientists in Panama that's found a promising treatment for malaria, Chagas disease and breast cancer in the most unlikely place: The mossy fur of tree sloths. It's yet another reason to not cut down rainforests. About half of all drugs brought to market from 1997-2006 came from plants, fungi and bacteria discovered by "bio-prospectors" in nature. And we see that sloths are just one of many new and unusual frontiers for this research.
Read the study by scientist Sarah Higginbotham here
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