Venom from the deadly funnel web spider can be used to protect the brain from devastating stroke damage, scientists have found.

Australian researchers were sequencing the DNA of the venom when they discovered a compound, which they say could protect brain cells even when injected hours after a stroke has occurred.

"We believe that we have, for the first time, found a way to minimise the effects of brain damage after a stroke," Professor Glenn King, from the UQ Institute for Molecular Bioscience, told AAP.

The scientists at the University of Queensland and Monash University made the discovery when they were examining venom extracted from spiders found in Queensland's Orchid beach, 400 kilometres north of Brisbane.