Once the blood has been collected, the crabs are taken back to the water and released. Why? Because horseshoe crab blood has a nifty ability to detect contamination in pharmaceutical products.

The horseshoe crab has been scuttling in the ocean and tidal pools for more than 400 million years, playing a vital role in the East Coast ecosystem along with being a prized item for fishing bait ...

The biomedical industry is adopting new standards to protect horseshoe crabs because they are a linchpin in the production of vital medicines.

The Maryland horseshoe crab is playing a vital role in ensuring the coronavirus vaccine is clean and safe to use.

Forty-five minutes of exposure to the crab’s blood is enough to reveal endotoxins from gram-negative bacteria which otherwise avoid detection, and is sensitive enough to isolate a threat the ...

Because of its quick and detectable response to bacteria, horseshoe crab blood is used in testing medications, and now, the coronavirus vaccine.

It’s been about 15 years since a synthetic replacement first was developed for the component in horseshoe crab blood that detects those harmful toxins embedded in the walls of bacteria.

Every drug certified by the FDA must be tested with an extract from the animal's blood, but the biomedical harvest is affecting horseshoe crab populations.

Quite possibly, the gentle horseshoe crab has swum ashore during the full and new moons of May and June to spawn for 445 million years. Horseshoe crab-like creatures were here when the dinosaurs ...

The blood of horseshoe crabs is bright blue, not red like ours. The "jack-of-all-trades" creatures are built to last, and the blood can do amazing things. That makes it incredibly valuable to drug ...