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Our latest research has just been published in Frontiers in Chemistry:
“𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻-𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗞𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀”

Steatoda nobilis (the noble false widow spider) is an invasive species that has become increasingly important to study, both for its potential impact on human health and on the environment. While scientists have studied its venom, very little was known about the spider’s internal chemistry.

In this research, we used advanced imaging techniques to create detailed maps of the spider’s body chemistry at the level of individual organs. This allowed us to see how different fats and molecules are distributed in places like the silk glands, ovaries, and nervous system. Importantly, our approach preserved the delicate internal structures of the spider during preparation, giving us clearer results.

These findings not only reveal new insights into the spider itself but also show that our method could be used to study the internal chemistry of other small animals that were previously too difficult to analyse in this way.

After several years of work, this project came to life thanks to fantastic collaborations with the Venom Systems Lab at the University of Galway led by Dr Michel Dugon and the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the University of Liège led by Prof. Loïc Quinton.

The paper is Open Access and available for FREE at the following link: Frontiers In Chemistry