Matthew Cordes's research sheds light on the unknown facts about brown recluses.

CBC’s Matthew Cordes, associate professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, shared his findings on how recluse venom affects living tissue. In the University of Arizona News article “5 Things You Might Not Know About Brown Recluse,” written by Daniel Stolte, Cordes emphasizes the rarity of spotting a brown recluse and the even rarer occurrence of getting bitten. Cordes found that brown recluse venom contains an enzyme that destroys cell membranes, a process that can sometimes lead to severe tissue damage. However, Cordes also stated, “Your average bite either has no effect or causes some kind of fairly mild irritation. It's the maybe 10% or 20% of cases where you get something that's necrotic, and then some even smaller fraction of those develop into something that's really a spreading necrotic lesion” (as cited in Stolte, 2026). The study also discovered cyclic ceramide phosphate, a rare molecule created by the venom.