FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

Bio-Prospecting with Sloths in Panama

VICE News meets the sloths that could cure cancer.

VICE News host Thomas Morton swings from the trees with an international team of scientists in Panama that's found a promising treatment for malaria, Chagas disease and breast cancer in the most unlikely place: The mossy fur of tree sloths. It's yet another reason to not cut down rain forests. About half of all drugs brought to market from 1997-2006 came from plants, fungi and bacteria discovered by "bio-prospectors" in nature. And we see that sloths are just one of many new and unusual frontiers for this research.

Advertisement

(Read the study by scientist Sarah Higginbotham.)

Subscribe to VICE News

Follow VICE News on Twitter

Like VICE News on Facebook