The Sloths That Could Cure Cancer: Bio-Prospecting in Panama

VICE 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: http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0084549&representation=PDF

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Видео The Sloths That Could Cure Cancer: Bio-Prospecting in Panama канала VICE News