Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Bioengineering published a report showing that bee, snake, or scorpion venom could form the basis of a new generation of cancer-fighting drugs. Assistant Professor Dipanjan Pan and his team used "venom toxins in tiny nanometer-sized particles to treat breast cancer and melanoma cells in the laboratory. These particles, which are camouflaged from the immune system, take the toxin directly to the cancer cells, sparing normal tissue."