Animal toxins: exploring novel bioactive compounds from toads, snakes and scorpions
Given its huge biodiversity, which includes a great amount of venomous and poisonous animal species, Brazil is well-known for its toxinological research. In this special collection published in Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, we present a series of studies which have been carried out by a high-profile group of Brazilian researchers from the Research Support Center on Animal Toxins (NAP-TOXAN-USP) at University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto, and have been funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp).
These studies describe new compounds from toad poison and snake and scorpion venoms using different approaches for their isolation and structural and functional characterization, aiming at the discovery of new candidate molecules. We are delighted to publish them as a special collection and believe it will be of interest for all involved not only with Toxinology but also with drug discovery and biotechnology development.
This collection of articles has not been sponsored and articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process. The Editor declares no competing interests.