UGA researcher develops promising new blood drug from fly spit

A researcher at The University of Georgia has turned fly saliva into a promising new anti-clotting drug that might one day be an alternative to the now commonly used heparin. The new drug, called Simukunin, is very effective at stopping blood clotting and offers other medical advantages, says Donald Champagne, an associate professor at UGA who has been working for 20 years to extract salivary proteins from mosquitoes, ticks and black flies. "Basically, anything that sucks blood is of interest to…