Like Godzilla , Edward Cullen , and Elmo , Heloderma suspectumareis a monster with some seriously dedicated fans . The squat , grumpy - look lizard more commonly recognise as the Gila monster makes its home in the punishing heat of the American southwest , and a fistful of scientists are enamored with the species ' special spit .
The Gila devil is one oftwo speciesof poisonous lizard , and the aftermath of its slimy bite is reported to feel like bite lava . Decades ago , scientists question why the lizard had developed weaponized spit , and how it work on .
In clean apart the saliva ’s chemical substance components , they found a turn of pretty violent protein , include one that attacks the pancreas . As someone who pass a spate of clip imagine about pancreases and pancreas - related illness , endocrinologist John Eng was intrigued . By 1992 he had identified the protein , called exendin-4 , and learned that it was amazingly standardised to a human protein that avail influence profligate sugar spirit level . Thirteen years afterwards , Eng and other research worker had found a manner to make synthetic exendin-4 — and tomake it into medicinefor people with diabetes . The final product , a drug called Byetta , was approved by the FDA in 2005 .
“ It really is a beautiful lizard , ” Engsaidof the demon in a 2007 audience with the website Diabetes In Control . “ Like many other animal species it is under pressure sensation from ontogeny and other environmental concerns . The query is , what other animal has something to teach us that can be of future note value ? And plants , too ? We will never sleep together their value if they are go . ”
Eng is not alone in his concern for the lizard ’s well - being or his desire to uncover its secrets . Computational biologist Melissa Wilson Sayres is presently expect for backers who willhelp her labstudy the lizard ’s genetic info .
“ People are typically afraid of this lizard , but it ’s save a huge bit of people , ” Sayres recite Carrie Arnold atThe Daily Beast . The lab needs $ 8665 — mere penny , as research buck go — but Sayres and her team say it would be enough to allow them to sequence and dissect the Gila monster ’s desoxyribonucleic acid . This info could , in number , inform both preservation efforts and further medical research .
And all this from a reclusive , bitey reptile . Sayres herself is surprised by the passion she feels forH. suspectumare . “I never anticipated fall in sexual love with a monster , ” she said .
