A student who just graduated from here helped with a project developing a synthetic alternative.  It's still in development, but may help decrease the impact on horseshoe crabs.  The Asian species are generally imperiled from overfishing as well.

On Tue, Jun 9, 2020 at 8:27 AM Harry Lee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Nice find, Jordan,

Also of some interest is the fact that the conspicuous blue pigment clearly shown in that report, hemocyanin, is present in the "blood" of most mollusks as well as the horseshoe crab.

Caveat 1: This stuff should not be confused with the substance that detects bacterial endotoxin (the core topic of the piece).
Caveat 2: Certain mollusks, e.g., Arks (Arcidae) use hemoglobin instead of hemocyanin the purpose of oxygen transport.

Harry


On 6/8/2020 8:49 PM, Jordan Star wrote:
Hello,

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/race-coronavirus-vaccine-runs-horseshoe-crab-blood-180975048/

Sent from Jordan's iPhone 11 pro max
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--
Dr. David Campbell
Associate Professor, Geology
Department of Natural Sciences
Box 7270
Gardner-Webb University
Boiling Springs NC 28017
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