Listen "Maggots in medicine"
Episode Synopsis
After centuries of use in wound-healing, the maggot is back. The rise of the drug-resistant superbug means fresh eyes are focused on the superpowers of the larvae of the greenbottle fly species, Lucilia Sericata. James Gallagher reports on the healthcare professionals who are turning to maggot therapy to help clean up wounds and stop infection. He talks to Melanie who has Type 1 Diabetes and had a quarter of her foot amputated. When the skin around the wound started to die, threatening the whole limb, she was offered maggot therapy. Now a self-declared maggot superfan, Melanie watched as the larvae, inside a bag a bit like a teabag, digested the dead skin on her foot.And James visits a factory in Wales, BioMonde, preparing medical grade fly eggs for use across the UK health service.(Photo: Larvae of the greenbottle fly sitting on so-called horse blood agar seen through a magnifying glass at the pharmaceutical company BioMonde. Credit: David Hecker/DDP/AFP/Getty Images)
More episodes of the podcast Discovery
Frontiers of Space Science
12/01/2026
What is Quantum?
05/01/2026
The Life Scientific: George Church
29/12/2025
The Life Scientific: Gareth Collett
22/12/2025
The Life Scientific: Sonia Gandhi
15/12/2025
The Life Scientific: Mark O'Shea
08/12/2025
Waking up with a different voice
01/12/2025
The animal employment agency
24/11/2025
Bodies
17/11/2025
The Life Scientific: Kevin Fong
10/11/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.