In the annals of unconventional medical research, few can claim to have risked quite as much as Tim Friede. During the past 20 years the truck mechanic from Wisconsin has chosen to be bitten by some of the world’s deadliest snakes more than 200 times. His blood is teeming with antibodies painstakingly — and painfully — built up through years of calculated exposure to the neurotoxins of mambas, cobras, kraits and taipans. And now that blood has allowed researchers to develop a medical first: an anti-venom capable of neutralising a broad spectrum of snakebites. Snakebites kill about 100,000 people each year, mostly children and farm workers living in remote, rural areas.

Source: The Times May 02, 2025 23:45 UTC