WESTERN MAIL (Cardiff, UK) 16 November 04 Welsh snake expert wins top award (Rhodri Clark)
A biologist at a Welsh university has won an international award for work which could save injuries and deaths from snake bites in Asia.
The Joseph B Slowinski award - in memory of a venom expert who died after a snake bite in 2001 - has been presented to Simon Creer for his work on the venoms of Asian pit vipers.
Dr Creer, of the University of Wales, Bangor, has worked out a way of using the DNA of various species of pit viper to help improve the antivenoms administered to people who have been bitten by the snakes.
Pit vipers are named after the heat-sensitive dimples on their heads with which they detect prey.
Various types live in Asia, including one in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Burma which can kill a human with one strike.
Dr Creer said he had won the accolade for a paper on the best way to use and analyse DNA to reconstruct an accurate "family tree" for a medically significant group of Asian pit vipers.
"It is important to work out the 'family tree', as snake venoms can vary within 'families'. It's important to incorporate evolutionary information when developing and administering antivenoms," he said.
It was in Burma that Joe Slowinski, who hailed from Missouri, US, was fatally bitten by a krait, another type of venomous snake.
He was 37 and had studied many dangerous snakes to advance the understanding of their venom.
While making films for National Geographic he was bitten by a cobra and, on another occasion, had poison spat into his eyes by a cobra.
The annual award in his name is made by the Center for North American Herpetology for excellence in venomous-snake systematics. Dr Creer is the second recipient, and the first outside the US.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=14876904&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=welsh-snake-expert-wins-top-award-name_page.html
BBC (London, UK) 16 November 04 Snake venom study wins top award
An academic expert in snake biology has won an international award for work on the venom of a deadly species.
Dr Simon Creer, from the University of Wales, Bangor has landed the prize for his study of Asian pit viper DNA.
Judges for the 2004 Joseph B Slowinski Award, presented by US experts, said his work pointed the way forward.
The prize is named after a 38-year-old American herpetologist who died on a field trip in Burma three years ago after he was bitten by a deadly snake.
Dr Creer has worked at the School of Biological Sciences at Bangor, north Wales, for seven years.
He beat off competition from around the world to win the prize, which was presented to him by Sue Assinder, the head of the school.
Dr Creer said his paper had focused on the best way to use and analyse DNA to accurately reconstruct a 'family tree' for a medically significant group of Asian pit vipers.
"Pit vipers can be a source of serious injury for many people living in certain areas of Asia," he said.
"It is important to work out the 'family tree', as snake venoms can vary within 'families'.
"It is important to incorporate evolutionary information when developing and administering antivenoms."
Ms Assinder said: "It is the mark of a good scientist to be awarded such an honour.
"Dr Creer's work has shown the way forward for others in a particular area of research."
Veteran herpetologist Joseph Bruno Slowinski died in northern Burma in September 2001 after he was bitten by deadly local snake called a krait.
The award is made by the Center for North American Herpetology in Kansas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/4017031.stm
{Wes Note: We're back ... they're not leading with the Army this time ...
NATIONAL POST (Toronto, Ontario) 16 November 04 Prime Minister considers sending Canadian police to help out in Gaza
Paul Martin is considering a broader role for Canada in the Middle East peace process that could include sending police to Gaza and the West Bank to train security officials on the ground. The deployment of police could be part of a renewed effort by Canada to become more actively engaged in ending violence in the region. … After leaving Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Sunday, where Canada has 100 police officers assisting in the restoration of law and order to the war-torn island, Mr. Martin suggested it might make sense for a similar deployment of police to Gaza and the West Bank. He said police could be deployed to the troubled Palestinian territories in the same way that they have been to Haiti and elsewhere. …
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