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COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Hiking up a hillside in Cottonwood Heights Thursday, Eric Januszkiewicz started a hunt, expecting a good discover.
“It’s difficult, difficult discovering them,” he explained, as he browsed and penetrated under rock crevices and into bushes, utilizing a metal pole with a hook on completion.
He said timing is whatever when it pertains to discovering rattlesnakes. So is the weather condition.
“That’s simply lucky if you encounter one,” he said.
Most individuals would not utilize the word “luck” when it pertains to seeing the particular rattlesnake types he was looking for.
“I’m here attempting to capture Great Basin rattlesnakes. That’s a specific types that I’m studying,” Januszkiewicz explained.
That Ph.D. trainee from Colorado has actually been making his method from southern Utah as much as the Salt Lake Valley to search for Great Basin rattlesnakes. Januszkiewicz, who drove from Greeley, Colorado, began his journey near St. George. After searching the southern part of the state, he made a drop in main Utah.
Januszkiewicz got lucky and captured a young Great Basin rattlesnake near Kanosh. He brought her out of an unique snake-holding pail.
Relatively little for a rattlesnake, she wriggled as Januszkiewicz carefully lifted her with his connected metal pole to keep her from roaming too far.
“This one is truly calm,” he said. “It understands we’re no hazard to it.”
It assists that he enjoys to deal with the animals.
“I’ve constantly type of been captivated and I got the chance to deal with them in my undergrad,” he explained. He studied a fungal illness in wood rattlesnakes. “And so that simply type of got me hooked.”
And now Eric is hooked on what snake venom might possibly be utilized for worldwides of science and medication — consisting of prospective usages in combating cancer. He’ll bring the snakes he gathers in Utah back to the Mackessy Venom Analysis Lab at the University of Northern Colorado, where they’ll milk the venom from the snake. They take good care of the snakes, he said, and the milking procedure is pain-free and simple.
Januszkiewicz will then evaluate and study the venom.
“So, taking a look at all the toxic substances that are within their venom, that comprise their venom, and taking a look at geographical variation,” he explained. “A great deal of types will reveal a quite big degree of variation within their venom.”
He’ll see what makes the toxic substances he studies in the venom of the Great Basin Rattlesnakes discovered in Utah distinct. Januszkiewicz explained that it can help in discovering reliable methods to treat snakebites.
As for the cancer-fighting part, he explained how they’re discovering toxic substances that might possibly target particular cancers in the body.
“All these toxic substances, the method they work, they’ll target particular proteins in the body, different tissues. And so, you can really use that for good,” he explained.
All these toxic substances, the method they work, they’ll target particular proteins in the body, different tissues. And so, you can really use that for good.
–Eric Januszkiewicz
Januszkiewicz said a toxic substance can target a particular protein type that is possibly overexpressed in cancer cells.
“So, an extremely particular part of the venom, you might conjugate possibly an anti-cancer drug to it and target particular cancer types,” he said. “So there’s a great deal of energy pharmacologically with these venoms.”
There’s a lot more research study that still requires to be done, he said, and it’s still in its infancy.
But he explained how rattlesnakes in Utah are extremely helpful to science and might be utilized in the medical field down the roadway.
“Venom is simply extremely interesting once you truly get into it,” he said.
Januszkiewicz prepares to complete his weeklong Utah Great Basin Rattlesnake-gathering journey in Spanish Fork Canyon Friday, prior to heading back to Colorado.
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Lauren SteinbrecherLauren Steinbrecher is an Emmy acclaimed press reporter and multimedia reporter who signed up with KSL in December 2021.
