Your cold capsule. Dad’s aspirin. Nana’s eye drops. We may take such therapies for granted, but safe and effective medications don’t grow on trees—or do they? In fact, their sources may. Since modern chemistry has not kept pace with the need to treat many illnesses, scientists are returning to nature as the inspiration for new drugs.

Mother Nature is making a comeback.

Since suffering a stroke in May 2003, Sanaa Ibrahim—an Iraqi pharmacist and mother of three—had been unable to swallow anything. For 4 years she tried numerous treatments to no avail. Her search for an effective therapy led her to the United States, where she eventually entered Dr. Christy Ludlow’s clinical trial, “Comparison of an Implanted Neuroprosthesis with Sensory Training for Improving Airway Protection in Chronic Dysphagia.” Today Ibrahim is nearly back to normal.