Surrounded by thousands of live scorpions in a laboratory deep in Egypt's Western Desert, Ahmed Abu al-Seoud carefully handles one of the curved-tailed arachnids before extracting a drop of its venom.
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A mechanical engineer who worked in the oil sector for almost two decades, Abu al-Seoud decided in 2018 to strike a different path - producing scorpion venom for pharmaceutical research purposes.
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"I was surfing the internet and saw scorpion venom was one of the most expensive on the market," said the 44-year-old, clad in a white lab coat. "So I thought to myself: Why not take advantage of this desert environment where they roam around?"
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Biomedical researchers are studying the pharmaceutical properties of scorpion venom, making the rare and potent neurotoxin a highly sought-after commodity now produced in several Middle Eastern countries
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"Dozens of scorpion-derived bioactive molecules have been shown to possess promising pharmacological properties," said a review published last May in the journal Biomedicines.
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It said labs are now studying its potential anti-microbial, immuno-suppressive and anti-cancer effects, among others, hoping to one day use or synthesise them for medicines.
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Abu al-Seoud is from the Dakhla oasis, located in Egypt's vast New Valley province and around 800 kilometres (500 miles) southwest of the capital Cairo.
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Sand dunes and towering palms surround his laboratory, which he affectionately calls the "Scorpion Kingdom".
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"Here, every family has a story about a scorpion sting," Abu al-Seoud said.
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To get the animals to secrete venom in the controlled conditions of the lab, the scorpions are given a slight electric shock. Workers wait 20-30 days between extractions to obtain the highest quality venom.
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"What matters is the level of purity," Abu al-Seoud said, adding that one gram requires the venom of 3,000-3,500 scorpions.
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