Taking the sting out: Australian gene editing is crossing the pain threshold

A Sydney team has developed a box jellyfish antidote so simple it can go on as a spray. But it's only the first step

The idea came to Dr Greg Neely after the fruit flies. In May, the Sydney-based scientist and his team of 22 announced they had potentially cured the sting of the box jellyfish, the most venomous creature in the world, whose toxins cause excruciating pain as a best-case scenario, and cardiac arrest as the worst.

It was a simple but groundbreaking technique, using the latest in genetics technology - Crispr, the gene-editing tool that allows scientists to make precise changes to DNA.