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Identified by neurobiologist Harald Sontheimer, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, chlorotoxin targets glioma cells and blocks their fluid-balancing chloride channels, preventing them from shrinking and then migrating elsewhere in the brain. Sontheimer's group is about to submit a clinical-trial protocol to the FDA. If approved, as many as 30 glioma patients could begin receiving chlorotoxin tagged with radioactive iodine as early as July. If the strategy works, Sontheimer says, "chlorotoxin could become a platform for delivering all sorts of drugs."