What's it like to get bit by a venomous snake?
"It's like a bee sting times a thousand," Tim Friede says.
Friede would know. Over the past few decades, he's let himself be bitten over two hundred times, by all kinds of venomous snakes — black mambas, taipans, cobras, kraits, and more. He calls it his "claim to fame."
The bites have sent him to the ICU, put him into comas and more. But with time, he's gradually built up an immunity to multiple types of venom.
That made him wonder: Could this hobby of his be used for public good? If he survived all these toxins, could scientists share his immunity with other people, too?
The World Health Organization estimates that every year, between one and three million people are bitten by venomous snakes. Of those people, tens of thousands die; thousands more are permanently disabled.
High quality antivenoms are considered the most effective treatment for envenomation. Those existing antivenoms usually come from domestic animals, like horses, that have been injected with small amounts of a specific venom to produce antibodies that identify and neutralize its toxins.
Researchers who studied Friede's blood hope to synthesize a treatment that could be used for multiple different kinds of venomous snake bites — a universal antivenom.
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This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn and edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Jimmy Keeley was the audio engineer. Special thanks to Johannes Doerge.Copyright 2025 NPR
