By Betsy McKay | Photos by Dylan Nelson for WSJWhat makes bats stand out areBats could help prevent pandemics and reveal blockbuster treatments for deadly human diseases or to slow aging.
Bats naturally limit inflammation, which occurs from stress, signs of danger or a viral infection. Humans become ill when their inflammatory responses kick into overdrive to fight off a virus, but bat immune systems have a more measured response, tolerating the invader.said Linfa Wang, professor in the emerging diseases program at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
Paratus Sciences Corp, where Dr. Zwaka is a founder and Dr. Wang is a founding adviser, is putting $100 million into researching bats to target new drugs that could combat viruses, cancer, diabetes, aging and other conditions.Working in labs in New York and Singapore, the scientists have identified some promising drug targets to address inflammation, which plays a role in many diseases.A breakthrough by Dr. Zwaka is helping virologists and bat biologists accelerate their research.
In a colony under the microscope, a scientist points to the edge, where stem cells transform into different cell types.