SAVED BY THE SPONGES

Wouldn't an all-purpose antidote to a range of poisons be great? Scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have developed tiny "nanosponges" that soak up a particular class of toxins released into the blood by bacterial infections and venom.
Made of a polymer wrapped in red-blood-cell membranes, the 85-nanometer sponges (seen in an artist's rendering above) serve as decoys to soak up "pore forming" toxins that normally destroy red blood cells by punching holes in their membranes. These poisons include E. coli, which can cause lethal food poisoning. In tests against an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, inoculation with the sponges protected 89% of mice from death. Administered after a lethal dose, sponges saved 44%. The research is described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.