'Unparalleled' Snake Antivenom Made With Antibodies From a Man Bitten 200 Times (abc.net.au) 42
Long-time Slashdot reader piojo writes: Tim Friede, Wisconsin man, has been injecting himself with snake venom for 18 years to gain protection from his pet snakes. The antibodies he developed have formed two components of a three-part antivenom, which gives partial or total protection against 18 of 19 species of venomous snakes that were tested. Notably, the antivenom is ineffective against vipers.
From Australia's public broadcaster ABC: The team's results have been published today in the journal Cell... The new antivenom described in the study is very different to traditional antivenoms, according to Peter Kwong, a biochemist at Columbia University and one of the study's authors.
The scientists call their new antivenom "unparallel," according to the BBC, though the snake enthusiast (a former truck mechanic) had "initially wanted to build up his immunity to protect himself when handling snakes, documenting his exploits on YouTube." The team is trying to refine the antibodies further and see if adding a fourth component could lead to total protection against elapid snake venom... "Tim's antibodies are really quite extraordinary — he taught his immune system to get this very, very broad recognition," said Professor Peter Kwong [one of the researchers at Columbia University].
In a video interview, CNN shows footage of the man inducing snake bites (calling it "a classic do-not-try-this-at-home moment"). "I have a lot of notes in Excel files," he tells CNN, "where I hit these particular windows to where I know I can boost up before a bite."
"I don't just take the bite, because that can kill you. I properly boost up, and methodically take notes, and weigh the venomes out very specifically..."
From Australia's public broadcaster ABC: The team's results have been published today in the journal Cell... The new antivenom described in the study is very different to traditional antivenoms, according to Peter Kwong, a biochemist at Columbia University and one of the study's authors.
The scientists call their new antivenom "unparallel," according to the BBC, though the snake enthusiast (a former truck mechanic) had "initially wanted to build up his immunity to protect himself when handling snakes, documenting his exploits on YouTube." The team is trying to refine the antibodies further and see if adding a fourth component could lead to total protection against elapid snake venom... "Tim's antibodies are really quite extraordinary — he taught his immune system to get this very, very broad recognition," said Professor Peter Kwong [one of the researchers at Columbia University].
In a video interview, CNN shows footage of the man inducing snake bites (calling it "a classic do-not-try-this-at-home moment"). "I have a lot of notes in Excel files," he tells CNN, "where I hit these particular windows to where I know I can boost up before a bite."
"I don't just take the bite, because that can kill you. I properly boost up, and methodically take notes, and weigh the venomes out very specifically..."
Two questions (Score:1)
Does he have life insurance?
Re:Two questions (Score:4, Insightful)
Is Mr. Friede single?
In your life, you will never do anything as consequential has Mr Friede. Me neither. You could sleep with a thousand women, and still not measure up to him.
Does he have life insurance?
Why not? He's now at less risk than anyone.
Re: (Score:1)
1. marry
2. life insurance
3. murder with snake venom
4. profit
Re:Two questions (Score:5, Funny)
You could sleep with a thousand women, and still not measure up to him.
Sleeping with a thousand women versus getting bitten by hundreds of venomous snakes... hmm... yeah I'll go with the first option.
Re:Two questions (Score:5, Funny)
That depends, venomous snakes never try to babytrap you or claim they'll never bite someone else.
Re:Two questions (Score:5, Funny)
If you sleep with a thousand women, do you really have the high-ground to complain that *they're* sleeping with other people?
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That depends, venomous snakes never try to babytrap you.
That would be certain varieties of wasp. No, she didn’t roofie you and drag you back to her home for fun times. You do get a chance to see if you can stomach her kids, before they eat their way out.
Re: Two questions (Score:2)
Next headline: âoeMan develops unparalleled antibodies to womenâ :-)
Re: (Score:1)
Why not? He's now at less risk than anyone.
insufficient information for that conclusion. he is at less risk from snakebite i guess (but otoh he's at greater risk of accidental overdose from his regimen).
he's also at greater risk of a golddigger using his hobby as cover for a murder, which was the original joke.
Next: Iocane Powder (Score:2)
Perhaps I'm ignorant of the underlying biology involved, but is anyone besides me having difficulty seeing how "antibodies" can be effective against hemotoxins or neurotoxins?
Re:Next: Iocane Powder (Score:5, Informative)
While it isn't covered in lower level biology classes much, antivenom treatments were actually the first antibody treatments available. It's only recently that we've used antibody treatments for diseases such as COVID.
Basically, an antibody is simply a protein that binds to a target protein and has a marker on it basically saying "eat me!" Ideally, said antibody will bind to the target protein in such a way as to disable it. IE a viral particle with an antibody on it being unable to inject its payload because the "tube" is blocked.
Venom is mostly made up of a number of nasty proteins. Having antibodies that attach and neutralize the venom plus marking it for cleanup helps.
Re: (Score:2)
I learned a thing today (on Slashdot, no less!). Thank you very kindly.
Re:Next: Iocane Powder (Score:4, Interesting)
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wont do me any good (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Dude. He wanted to share an anecdote not demand they drop everything for him.
Damn, dude. Get some perspective.
Re: (Score:2)
Amazing guy (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Amazing guy (Score:5, Informative)
He's been injected over 700 times, in addition to the bites. That's how he's doing the ones that can kill with one bite.
It's a hassle to do that every time, though. He knows his limits by now.
Re: Amazing guy (Score:2)
He certainly does know his limits now. From TFA:
Re: (Score:2)
Here he is getting bit twice [youtube.com].
Geez. Here I was, all ready to say something along the lines of how if you were an electrician and you've been severely shocked 200 times, you might want to consider a career change. But this guy is intentionally putting his arms and the business end of nope ropes together. While I understand the whole "for science" aspect, it still seems a bit reckless, and I'm not sure how much I really want to applaud an example of something that could've just as easily ended in a Darwin Award.
It's like those Star Tre
Re: (Score:2)
usually because it was some crazy Klingon honor thing
Don't be such an incredible dumbass. He's doing it specifically so his blood can be studied to make better antivenom.
It's the only way to push this forwards quickly, and because of ethical restraints the doctors can't do a study or ask people to do it. Only somebody courageous doing it and then submitting his blood for study can make this happen.
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Don't be such an incredible dumbass. He's doing it specifically so his blood can be studied to make better antivenom.
No he wasn't. I wouldn't go calling other people dumbass and then pretending the person did something that is provably false if you bothered reading TFA. He did it for his own personal benefit, uncontrolled, and the result nearly killed him.
The fact that after his near death experience as a result of his own stupidity lead him to work with scientists for the betterment of others doesn't mean he wasn't being reckless (again he spent two weeks in a coma).
It's the only way to push this forwards quickly
If you actually wanted to push this forward quickly you
Re: (Score:2)
You're being an extra dumbass. Watch the interview with him, his ex-wife, and his son. Everybody agrees he was doing it to save lives, and that he's made a lot of personal sacrifices to make it happen.
Uncontrolled bites isn't an issue. They're not studying how each bite affects him. They're studying the antibodies in his blood.
You're arguing from ignorance... yet again. You've been doing this for over two decades, and you still haven't figured out that I always looked into something before talking about i
Re: (Score:2)
While I understand the whole "for science" aspect, it still seems a bit reckless, and I'm not sure how much I really want to applaud an example of something that could've just as easily ended in a Darwin Award.
He started with small injections of venom and worked up to the bites, carefully documenting the steps and results along the way. His initial goal was to avoid accidentally dying in case he got bit by his snakes. I haven't seen anywhere that says why he switched from injections to bites.
In answer to another person's question, he was married, but he got divorced.
Re: (Score:2)
While I understand the whole "for science" aspect, it still seems a bit reckless, and I'm not sure how much I really want to applaud an example of something that could've just as easily ended in a Darwin Award.
He started with small injections of venom and worked up to the bites, carefully documenting the steps and results along the way. His initial goal was to avoid accidentally dying in case he got bit by his snakes. I haven't seen anywhere that says why he switched from injections to bites.
I wonder how he controls the potency of the bites? I can grok that he's doing some good, but yeah, there's a fair chance he's going to miscalculate some day and accidentally kill himself.
In answer to another person's question, he was married, but he got divorced.
I wonder if his vocation has anything to do with that? In addition, he must be getting something out of this. A buzz, maybe he's into pain. I dunno. For my own part, I might find something different to do to help humanity than getting purposely bit by danger noodles.
Re: (Score:3)
By now he's probably ok since he has so much experience, but I think the real answer is that snake venom isn't actually very deadly. According to these stats [wikipedia.org], your chances of dying from a snake bite are less than 1%, with 2,500 poisonous bites in North America and only 5 deaths. Of course plenty of uncertainty and disclaimers with that, but etc.
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There are also snake handling churches [npr.org]. You hear about them every now and then, but then they die out. /s
Mic drop!
By now he's probably ok since he has so much experience, but I think the real answer is that snake venom isn't actually very deadly. According to these stats [wikipedia.org], your chances of dying from a snake bite are less than 1%, with 2,500 poisonous bites in North America and only 5 deaths. Of course plenty of uncertainty and disclaimers with that, but etc.
Probably not a huge danger for him at this point . I'd be more worried about him biting someone. 8^)
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Well that's because we live in North America. Most global snake bite deaths are, if I'm not mistaken, in Asia. The availability of anti-venom in a timely manner can be difficult there.
This kind of breakthrough is pretty amazing. If they can use his blood to make anti-venom without having to inject horses and other animals, it's a huge win for humanity. Being able to derive anti-bodies from a human instead of animal also cuts down on side affects.
So this may not be a big deal for Western society since we hav
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Well that's because we live in North America. Most global snake bite deaths are, if I'm not mistaken, in Asia.
Click on the link, I'll even reproduce it for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
There's a chart that lists deaths and bites by region. Read it and you will not be ignorant next time you post.
Re: (Score:3)
From your link
Most snake envenomings and fatalities occur in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, with India reporting the most snakebite deaths of any country.
So as you see, fucking Asia is 3 out of the 4 most likely to die from snakebite regions of the world. I'm sorry to swear but you calling me ignorant, then linking something that confirms my post is fairly insulting.
Why is this antivenom different from others? (Score:4, Interesting)
The magic is that three antibodies confer protection against many species of snake. But why doesn't this happen for existing antivenoms? From the ABC article:
antivenom is created using animal blood, like horses or other large mammals.
The animals are given small doses of the venom, and then over time given larger and larger doses. This helps the animal produce an increasing immune response without getting so sick they die.
From another article [theconversation.com]:
Broad-spectrum or “polyvalent” antivenoms are made by injecting horses with mixtures of venom from different species or different populations of snakes. However, the elevated antibody content per dose can increase the risk of adverse reactions.
It's not surprising that cells developed in a human are more suited to us than cells developed in horses. But the technique is fundamentally the same. Is the new antivenom better solely because it is human, or is it somehow more adapted as a result of being honed in vivo for 18 years?
Re: (Score:2)
I forget which article I read it in, but I think the anti-venom they are making perhaps covers more species in a single vial. It also mentions there were two types of venomous snakes, vipers and another that escapes me, and the anti-venom has to be made for both. Wish I could find the article but it was interesting.
This changes things (Score:3)
I take it all back, my last job wasn't so bad now.
I wouldn't want to be him, but I really feel sorry for the person he replaced.
18 of 19 species of venomous snakes (Score:2)
"Oh no, vipers! my only weakness!"
FAFO (Score:1)
I saw this movie (Score:2)