Share
4th May 2025
06:04pm BST
Tim Friede, an ex-truck mechanic from California, has single-handedly altered the course of antivenom production with his unique blood.
Since 2007, he's been injecting himself with snake venom and allowing the reptiles to sink their fangs into him as a way of building immunity when handling them - clocking up over 700 injections and 200 bites in the process - and helping those in need of life-saving treatment following animal attacks.
"I didn't want to die. I didn't want to lose a finger. I didn't want to miss work," Friede told BBC.
"It just became a lifestyle and I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing as hard as I could push - for the people who are 8,000 miles away from me who die from snakebite."
He eventually came to the attention of Centivax chief executive Dr. Jacob Glanville, whose team was searching for 'broadly neutralising antibodies'.
"Immediately I was like, 'If anybody in the world has developed these broadly neutralising antibodies, it's going to be him' and so I reached out," said Glanville.
"The first call I was like, 'This might be awkward, but I'd love to get my hands on some of your blood.'"
Friede was happy to assist in the project, which focused on the elapid family of venomous snakes (cobras, taipans and mambas) that use neurotoxins to paralyse their victims. This allowed Glanville and his team to scour his blood for protective components.
Their research found two broadly neutralising antibodies that could target two classes of neurotoxin; adding in a third drug to complete an experimental antivenom brew to be used on mice.
These mice survived fatal doses from 13 of the 19 specially selected species of deadly snake, while they had partial protection against the other six.
Glanville called this "unparalleled" protection and the team is now trying to refine these antibodies to see if a fourth element can result in total protection against elapid venom.
Columbia University's Professor Peter Kwong believes that in the next "10 or 15 years" we should have effective antivenom against the vipers' haemotoxins too, which target the blood, but the ultimate aim is to concoct one single antivenom against both classes of snake.
"Tim's antibodies are really quite extraordinary - he taught his immune system to get this very, very broad recognition," noted Kwong.
Friede went on to say: "I'm doing something good for humanity and that was very important to me. I'm proud of it. It's pretty cool."
