Tim Friede has been bitten by snakes a whole bunch of occasions — usually on goal. Now scientists are finding out his blood in hopes of making a greater remedy for snake bites.
Friede has lengthy had a fascination with reptiles and different venomous creatures. He used to take advantage of scorpions’ and spiders’ venom as a interest and saved dozens of snakes at his Wisconsin dwelling.
Hoping to guard himself from snake bites — and out of what he calls “easy curiosity” — he started injecting himself with small doses of snake venom after which slowly elevated the quantity to attempt to construct up tolerance. He would then let snakes chunk him.
“At first, it was very scary,” Friede stated. “However the extra you do it, the higher you get at it, the extra calm you turn out to be with it.”
Whereas no physician or emergency medical technician — or anybody, actually — would ever recommend this is a remotely good concept, specialists say his technique tracks how the physique works. When the immune system is uncovered to the toxins in snake venom, it develops antibodies that may neutralize the poison. If it’s a small quantity of venom the physique can react earlier than it’s overwhelmed. And if it’s venom the physique has seen earlier than, it may well react extra rapidly and deal with bigger exposures.
Friede has withstood snakebites and injections for almost 20 years and nonetheless has a fridge full of venom. In movies posted to his YouTube channel, he reveals off swollen fang marks on his arms from black mamba, taipan and water cobra bites.
On this picture offered by Centivax, Tim Friede, heart, stands in a lab in South San Francisco, Calif., in 2023, that’s utilizing his blood to organize an antivenom to the bites of assorted snakes.
Centivax by way of AP
“I needed to push the bounds as near loss of life as potential to the place I’m simply principally teetering proper there after which again off of it,” he stated.
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However Friede additionally needed to assist. He emailed each scientist he may discover, asking them to review the tolerance he’d constructed up.
And there’s a want: Round 110,000 folks die from snakebite yearly, in response to the World Well being Group. And making antivenom is pricey and tough. It’s usually created by injecting giant mammals like horses with venom and amassing the antibodies they produce. These antivenoms are normally solely efficient in opposition to particular snake species, and may generally produce dangerous reactions on account of their nonhuman origins.
When Columbia College’s Peter Kwong heard of Friede, he stated, “Oh, wow, this could be very uncommon. We had a very particular particular person with superb antibodies that he created over 18 years.”
In a examine revealed Friday within the journal Cell, Kwong and collaborators shared what they have been in a position to do with Friede’s distinctive blood: They recognized two antibodies that neutralize venom from many alternative snake species with the purpose of sometime producing a remedy that may provide broad safety.
It’s very early analysis — the antivenom was solely examined in mice, and researchers are nonetheless years away from human trials. And whereas their experimental remedy reveals promise in opposition to the group of snakes that embrace mambas and cobras, it’s not efficient in opposition to vipers, which embrace snakes like rattlers.
“Regardless of the promise, there’s a lot work to do,” stated Nicholas Casewell, a snakebite researcher at Liverpool College of Tropical Drugs in an e mail. Casewell was not concerned with the brand new examine.
Friede’s journey has not been with out its missteps. Amongst them: He stated after one dangerous snake chunk he needed to reduce off half of his finger. And a few notably nasty cobra bites despatched him to the hospital.
Friede is now employed by Centivax, a firm making an attempt to develop the remedy and that helped pay for the examine. He’s excited that his 18-year odyssey may sooner or later save lives from snakebite, however his message to these impressed to observe in his footsteps is easy: “Don’t do it,” he stated.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
