From stronger teeth to sharper eyes to a rewired brain, Oregon innovators are finding ways to keep us living longer and better.

BY JON BELL

Who: Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology
What: Spider venom research
Where: Lewis & Clark College, Portland

In her research into the venom of brown recluse spiders, Greta Binford may not exactly be looking for the next miracle cure for erectile dysfunction — but there’s a chance she might find it.

A 20-year veteran of spider research, Binford has spent the past decade collecting and analyzing some 65 different species of the brown recluse in North, Central and South America and Africa.

Her work explores the incredible biodiversity of the recluse and its sister species, as well as their evolutionary history and venom diversity. It’s research that’s helping to better understand the molecular effects of spider bites and, hopefully, lead to an antidote. One Mexican company has used venoms milked from Binford’s spiders to come up with a promising treatment; if successful, it may be available in the U.S in a few years.

An arachnid-inspired little blue pill comes into play because other researchers are actually looking at the venom of one Brazilian spider to treat erectile dysfunction; other venoms have been found to correct heart fibrillations and induce insulin secretions. Binford says such findings merely scratch the surface potential of venoms. After all, there are some 40,000 species of spiders in the world and each one can have a mix of up to 1,000 chemicals in its venom.

“It’s just an undiscovered gold mine of novel chemistry,” Binford says.

Who: SAM Medical Products
What: Hemostatic agents and delivery systems
Where: Tigard

Though SAM Medical Products’ granular hemostatic agent, CELOX, is geared for gaping wounds with life-threatening blood loss, Steve Melia has found it handy for something a little more everyday.

“I use it when I cut myself shaving,” says Melia, vice president of sales and marketing for the Tigard-based SAM.

Morning nicks aside, the company’s bigger focus for the blood-clotting CELOX, which is derived from shrimp shells, is the emergency medical, law enforcement and military markets. In fact, this past fall SAM secured a $1.2 million contract with the Marines to develop higher-performance chemistries and delivery systems for CELOX. Apropos, considering uncontrolled bleeding currently accounts for nearly half of battlefield deaths before evacuation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The contract came in the wake of SAM’s earlier introduction of two other delivery systems — a dissolvable pouch and an applicator and plunger — that help EMTs and medics effectively apply CELOX into deep wounds such as bullet holes and knife cuts. The company also has developed a gauze roll, and some doctors have recently started using CELOX in cardiothoracic surgeries.

From here, Melia says SAM will focus on taking CELOX “to the next level” while developing other innovative products for the medical field. Among other recent additions: BursaMed dressings, which help prevent and reduce pressure ulcers, an affliction that reportedly costs the nation’s health-care system $11 billion a year.

Who: Chrissa Kioussi, assistant professor of pharmacology
What: Tooth enamel gene
Where: Oregon State University, Corvallis

A lot of people are going to be smiling about the work of Chrissa Kioussi and her colleagues.

After two years of federally funded research at OSU and France’s Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology, Kioussi and crew have identified the gene that produces tooth enamel. And yes, that means that someday we’ll probably be able to have our pearly whites refreshed with brand new enamel or, even better, brand new teeth.

“Everybody with dental problems will benefit from this work,” Kioussi says, noting that the cellular approaches in her work can also be applied to a range of tissue and organ research. “It will be nice to go to the dentist and be treated with your own natural enamel. I hope that I’ll be able to experience it myself.”

The researchers studied laboratory mice that had the Ctip2 gene turned off. The resultant teeth were crude and without a strong enamel coating. Now that scientists know more about the genetics behind the dental armor, they’ll likely be able to use stem cells to grow new enamel.

But don’t put down the toothbrush just yet. Kioussi says further research with mice will be needed to make sure the enamel-producing cells work as they should. Expect at least five more years, she says, before this breakthrough is ready for human choppers.