Axel was part of a team investigating pain-inducing defensive venom in cobras! Check out the paper, published in Science:
Kazandjian TD, Petras D, Robinson SD, Thiel J van, Greene HW, Arbuckle K, Barlow A, Carter DA, Wouters RM, Whiteley G, Wagstaff SC, Arias AS, Albulescu L-O, Laing AP, Hall C, Heap A, Penrhyn-Lowe S, McCabe CV, Ainsworth S, Silva RR da, Dorrestein PC, Richardson MK, Gutiérrez JM, Calvete JJ, Harrison RA, Vetter I, Undheim E a. B, Wüster W, Casewell NR (2021) Convergent evolution of pain-inducing defensive venom components in spitting cobras. Science 371:386–390 . https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb9303
Associated article in The Conversation:
“Spitting cobras may have evolved unique venom to defend from ancient humans”. https://theconversation.com/spitting-cobras-may-have-evolved-unique-venom-to-defend-from-ancient-humans-153570
Pleistocene Genomics Lab 