How One Wisconsin Man’s Shocking Dare Sparked a Breakthrough in Universal Antivenom Research
Here’s a guy who’s taken “snake handling” to a whole new, and frankly bizarre, level. Imagine willingly letting venomous snakes sink their fangs into you—not once, but over 200 times—and injecting yourself with hundreds of doses of venom over twenty years. Tim Friede isn’t your average herpetology hobbyist; he’s basically a real-life, self-experimenting superhero whose astonishing antibodies are now inspiring scientists to cook up a universal antivenom. Could one man’s relentless quest to beat death—and snake venom—mean an end to hundreds of thousands of snakebite deaths worldwide? It sounds crazy, but this may just rewrite medical history… or at least give snakes a serious run for their money.
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Tim Friede has subjected himself to more than 700 doses of lethal snake venom and 200 actual snakebites over the past two decades. Now, his antibodies may lead to a universal antivenom.
CentivaxTim Friede with a water cobra.
For the past two decades, a man named Tim Friede has been self-administering doses of venom from cobras, mambas, rattlesnakes, and other deadly species with the hope of developing immunity to snakebites and helping scientists create a universal antivenom.
Friede administered most of these venoms via injection, but he also let venomous snakes bite him more than 200 times in the pursuit of this potential remedy — and it seems his sacrifice has paid off. Researchers have now used Friede’s antibodies to create a broad antivenom that has proven successful in mice.
According to a new study published in the journal Cell, that antivenom was able to partially or fully neutralize the venom of 19 of the world’s deadliest snakes, including the black mamba, king cobra, and taipan. While researchers said human tests are likely two years away, the results are nevertheless staggering.
Tim Friede’s Quest To Create A Universal Antivenom
Jacob GlanvilleTim Friede (center) with researchers at Centivax.
Most people would be right in assuming that Tim Friede’s obsession is dangerous. But for Friede, the end goal is worth the risk.
As he explained to the BBC, he first started this journey because he wanted to build up his immunity for protection while handling snakes. But Friede, a former truck mechanic, said he “completely screwed up” early on when he fell into a coma thanks to two cobra bites in quick succession.
“I didn’t want to die,” Friede said. “I didn’t want to lose a finger. I didn’t want to miss work.”
After that, he said, “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 snakebites.”
Friede grew up in Milwaukee and spent a lot of time as a kid “herping,” or searching for snakes. As he told The Washington Post, a bite from a harmless garter snake when he was five years old ignited a lifelong curiosity with snakes and their venom.
Over the course of the last two decades, Friede has documented his exploits via his YouTube channel. He imported venomous snakes from around the world and began milking them — along with scorpions — for their venom. He then heavily diluted that venom and injected himself with it, gradually increasing the dosage to bolster his immunity.
“I was more concerned about protecting myself and surviving first,” he said. “And then I realized that I’m beating death, and it’s great, but how do you get it out to the rest of the world?”
How Tim Friede Joined Forces With Scientists
Jacob GlanvilleResearchers using Friede’s antibodies to develop the antivenom.
Snakebites claim the lives of an estimated 140,000 people per year and leave three times as many facing amputation or permanent disability. To make matters worse, most deadly snakebites occur in poor nations, meaning there has been little economic incentive for institutions to create snake-specific antivenom.
“The market’s fractured into 30 to 40 products, which makes it really tiny markets, which are not attractive to innovation,” explained study co-author and Centivax CEO Jacob Glanville. “For that reason, antivenom hasn’t really changed in the last 125 years.”
But even with some antivenom on the market, patients often don’t know which species of snake bit them. Antivenom can also be less effective outside the region where the original venom was created due to genetic differences in snake populations. The only real solution would be a universal antivenom, but until recently, no one had attempted to make one.
It’s not an impossible task, either. There may be some 600 venomous snake species out there, but their venoms all contain different combinations of just 10 core toxin types. If a universal antivenom could target those toxins, then it just might work.
So, when Glanville heard that a man in Wisconsin named Tim Friede had already done a good portion of the legwork, he decided to get in touch with him.
“Immediately I was like, ‘If anybody in the world has developed these broadly neutralizing bodies, it’s going to be him,’ and so I reached out,” Glanville said. “The first call, I was like, ‘This might be awkward, but I’d love to get my hands on some of your blood.’”
