Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the United States. More specifically, brain cancer is amongst the most tedious forms of cancer to remove during surgery since it is difficult to distinguish the difference between brain cancer and healthy brain. Because of this, surgeons many times fail to remove all of the cancer. Luckily, Dr. Jim Olson has been working on "brain paint" which will help surgeons see what is cancer. This "paint" is produced by peptides from scorpions (specifically Deathstalkers which has a paralyzing sting). The process goes: the day before surgery the patient gets an injection of "brain paint" in their blood stream. The peptide them brings the florescent molecule to the cancer cell which then is visible to the surgeons with a special camera. So far, they have experimented with this "paint" on rats and dogs, which have been successful. This can mean a lot for the future, and can increase the success rate of surgery.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140605-how-venom-can-help-tackle-cancer
I imagine this could be available for use very quickly because of its necessity, but I wonder how much does it take to be produced. Most of the things people do in this world is for money, so it costs a lot it may differed,
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