Congolese graduate students helped Jackson conduct the Zanaga survey. Left, Ange Mboundou-Louika washes plastic bags used to collect frogs to test for chytrid fungus, which kills amphibians. once washed, he hangs the bags out to dry around Jackson’s woodland savanna campsite. Above, Ange Zassi-Boulou holds a Collared Marsh Snake (Natriciteres fuliginoides) at the campsite. Because of the inherent dangers of Back in 2006, it was the bite of that blood pressure in envenomed patients.” In traveling within the Congo, Jackson’s pesky cobra that possibly saved her from other words, if bitten by a rattlesnake or a Whitman students don’t follow her on re- succumbing to the tropical virus, which copper head, your blood pressure drops. search trips. caused her to suffer from the neurological This fact has lead to breakthrough “She takes more risks than a lot of disorder known as transverse myelitis, medicines, such as angiotensin converting other people,” said Kevin de Queiroz, a re- and left her teaching her biology classes in enzyme inhibitors, which save millions of search zoologist at the Smithsonian’s Na- a wheel chair until her nerves recovered. lives. These ACE inhibitors alleviate high tional Museum of Natural History, in an “I’ve never been treated with snake blood pressure, and some of the first ACE interview with The Scientist, a magazine venom in any organized medical way,” inhibitors approved by the FDA were de- devoted to the life sciences. Jackson said with a laugh. veloped using an enzyme isolated from But “the field work she does in remote By “organized medical way,” Jackson the venom of the Brazilian pit viper. places is very important for the study of means that her doctors didn’t use anti-ven- Jackson warns that strip mining, defor- biodiversity and for conservation,” de om to treat her illness, which it turns out estation and rapid development threaten Queiroz said. she picked up from shrew bites she en- the very snake populations on which dured while camping in the Congo. hopes for new venom-derived medications T H E SNA K E PI T is what Jackson calls However, molecules called nerve depend, especially the snakes living in her office. The name makes sense, as the growth factors have been identified from sub-Saharan Africa. Jackson’s snakes. cured leather skin of a deceased African cobra venom. A future medical application “Biomedical researchers, pharmacolo- Rock Python(Python sebae) hangs above might be using this venom for a medica- gists, clinicians, herpetologists and con- her door. The aquarium in the corner of tion that could help people who have suf- servation biologists must combine their ef- her office houses her Rubber Boas, which fered spinal injuries or other types of forts if the full potential of snake she has affectionately namedlewis and nerve damage – including the spinal dam- venom-derived medications is to be real- Clark. age Jackson suffered from her disease. ized,” she argued. However, the photo on her computer of Pharmaceutical companies are devel- “We have a selfish reason to protect an East African Red-Black Striped Snake oping drug therapies that use snake venom snakes.” (Bothrophthalmus lineatus) regurgitating a to treat heart disease, cancer, Parkinson’s field mouse has been replaced with a pic- disease and Alzheimer’s disease. ture of her new baby, Robin. Despite re- Those who suffer high blood pressure cently becoming a mother, Jackson plans are already indebted to venomous snakes. On the Web to continue braving the Congo’s hazards, Jackson said “a number of snake venoms Go to whitman.edu/snakekey to see the online because her snake research saves lives. create a transient condition of depressed guide to snakes of Western and Central Africa July 2012 21
Whitman Magazine July 2012
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