STAT+: Nectar bats are ‘wonderful, majestic’ and sugar-obsessed. This researcher wants to know how they stay healthy
Nectar bats may have nature’s biggest sweet tooth. Each night, the creatures scour the jungle for blossoming flowers in order to consume as much as 150% of their body weight in liquid sugar.
Such a feat would leave other mammals in shock or in a coma. But nectar bats push biology to the limit — making them “wonderful, majestic flying superheroes,” in the words of Jasmin Camacho, a postdoctoral researcher at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research who was recently named a STAT Wunderkind. By learning how bats protect themselves from the toxic effects of high sugar consumption, Camacho is striving to find new treatments for metabolic disorders like diabetes and obesity.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…
