US EditionHuman Antibodies Drive Breakthrough in Broad-Spectrum Snake Antivenom
- Researchers led by Peter Kwong at Columbia University published in 2025 a study on a broad-spectrum antivenom using antibodies from Tim Friede's blood.
- This research followed media reports in 2017 about Friede, who injected himself with snake venom for nearly 18 years to develop natural immunity.
- The antivenom neutralized venom from 19 snake species in mice, mainly targeting elapids common in Australia where field research is planned.
- Kwong said the final product could be a single pan-antivenom or two targeting elapids and viperids, while experts caution the antivenom is untested in humans.
- This development suggests potential for safer, broader snakebite treatments, addressing the WHO-recognized need amid about 110,000 annual snakebite deaths worldwide.
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356 Articles
Why this man let the world's deadliest snakes bite him — again and again
A Wisconsin man repeatedly bitten by snakes to build immunity is now helping scientists develop a universal antivenom. His blood contains antibodies that neutralize deadly elapid venoms like cobras and mambas.
Man Bitten 200 Times by Snakes Helps Create Breakthrough Antivenom
Venom of the king cobra helped scientists prepare snake antivenom. Credit: Benjamin Michael Marshall / CC BY-NC 2.0 Scientists have developed a potent antivenom using antibodies from a snakebite survivor, which has shown early success in protecting against venom from some of the world’s deadliest snakes. Tim Friede, a snake enthusiast from Wisconsin, has survived around 200 venomous snakebites and injected himself with snake venom more than 600 …
(S+) Timothy Friede let himself be bitten 200 times by poisonous snakes. Why?
In his own attempt, Timothy Friede has been bitten more than 200 times by highly toxic snakes. Here, he tells us why he did this and how researchers made a broadband antidote out of his blood that could save lives.
Total Chad Gets Bit by Hundreds Venomous Snakes to Develop Universal Antivenom
It sounds like the origin story of a superhero, but there's nothing fictional about what Tim Friede's accomplished. Since 2001, the 57-year-old Wisconsin man has let himself be bitten by venomous snakes on an incredible 200 occasions, inuring his immune system to the serpents' deadly toxins. Cobras, black mambas, you name it: Friede has weathered them all. That's on top of injecting himself with over 650 doses of increasingly potent amounts of…
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