An American has been bitten by snakes hundreds of times. Today, scientists are voluntarily studying Tim Friede's blood to find a more effective treatment for snake bites.
Hoping to protect himself against snake bites - and out of what he calls "mere curiosity" - he began injecting himself with small doses of snake venom, which he then slowly increased to try to gain tolerance.
"I take him out and let him bite my arm. The reason I do this is to shock and raise awareness about snakebiting. No one wants to see me inject a lethal dose. It's boring. So I purposely got bitten to prove something and filmed it, to depict people dying from snake bites. I wasn't looking to become a YouTube star or anything like that. For me, it's science that counts, 100%. '', explains the person concerned.
In videos posted on his YouTube channel, he shows the swollen fang marks on his arms following bites from black mamba, taipan and water cobra. His body developed immunity to snake bites for almost twenty years. An experience that benefits science.
''So Tim created a procedure that allowed him to recognize a lot of different toxins, and that recognition allowed him to be protected against snake bites. What we hope is to have that same protection without everyone having to go through 18 years of vaccinations and snake bites, ultimately. Instead, we isolate and identify the best antibodies. Or we can combine them with small molecules to create an anti-venom from Tim's extraordinary blood, says Peter Kwong of Columbia University.
Making an antivenom is expensive and difficult. It is often created by injecting venom into large mammals like horses and collecting the antibodies they produce. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 110,000 people die each year from snake bites.
