Study: Australian Spider Venom Could Save Heart Attack Victims The URL has been copied to your clipboard 0:00 0:03:04 0:00 Australian researchers say a treatment found in the venom of one of the world’s deadliest spiders could save the lives of heart attack victims. A team from the University of Queensland studied the poison from the Fraser Island funnel-web spider in eastern Australia. They say the venom contains what could be a life-saving molecule, or peptide. The peptide could block so-called death signals sent to cells after a heart attack, when blood flow to the heart is reduced. A reduction in blood flow cuts off oxygen to the heart muscles. This results in a message being sent in the body for heart cells to die.