Tim Friede, Herpetologist
Tim Friede has made it his life goal to help scientists develop a universal anti-venom by allowing himself to be bitten repeatedly by venomous snakes. His self-experimentation seems to be paying off. A recent article in the journal Cell credited him as a "hyperimmune donor" who helped researchers develop a drug that fully protected mice from the venom of 13 deadly snake species. More info from wikipedia: When Friede was 30, he enrolled in a venom extraction class, learning how to milk venom from spiders and scorpions. After acquiring a copperhead as a pet in 2000, he became interested in self-immunization to snake bites, and began injecting himself with small amounts of venom extracted from his snakes. He amassed a large collection of snakes, at one point housing over sixty in his basement. On September 12, 2001, drunk and distracted by the recent death of a family friend, he was bit by two different snakes; an Egyptian cobra bit one of his fingers while he was milking it, although he was little-affected due to his prior injections of cobra venom. He was bit by a monocled cobra in his bicep an hour later, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. Rushed to the hospital by his wife and his neighbor, he was revived with antivenom acquired from a local zoo, and awoke from a coma four days later. After the incident, Friede aimed to be able to survive two venomous snakebites in one night without requiring antivenom. He taught himself immunology, using Stanley Plotkin's textbook Vaccines as a guide, and became more methodical with his venom injections, using carefully measured and timed doses. These practices frequently resulted in side effects such as anaphylactic shocks, allergic reactions, and blackouts. Over the following 18 years, he injected himself with venom over 800 times, and was bitten around 200. He was bitten by various deadly species such as coastal taipans, water cobras, diamondback rattlesnakes, mojave rattlesnakes, and all four species of mamba.
Tim Friede has made it his life goal to help scientists develop a universal anti-venom by allowing himself to be bitten repeatedly by venomous snakes. His self-experimentation seems to be paying off. A recent article in the journal Cell credited him as a "hyperimmune donor" who helped researchers develop a drug that fully protected mice from the venom of 13 deadly snake species.
More info from wikipedia:
More info from wikipedia:
When Friede was 30, he enrolled in a venom extraction class, learning how to milk venom from spiders and scorpions. After acquiring a copperhead as a pet in 2000, he became interested in self-immunization to snake bites, and began injecting himself with small amounts of venom extracted from his snakes. He amassed a large collection of snakes, at one point housing over sixty in his basement. On September 12, 2001, drunk and distracted by the recent death of a family friend, he was bit by two different snakes; an Egyptian cobra bit one of his fingers while he was milking it, although he was little-affected due to his prior injections of cobra venom. He was bit by a monocled cobra in his bicep an hour later, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. Rushed to the hospital by his wife and his neighbor, he was revived with antivenom acquired from a local zoo, and awoke from a coma four days later.
After the incident, Friede aimed to be able to survive two venomous snakebites in one night without requiring antivenom. He taught himself immunology, using Stanley Plotkin's textbook Vaccines as a guide, and became more methodical with his venom injections, using carefully measured and timed doses. These practices frequently resulted in side effects such as anaphylactic shocks, allergic reactions, and blackouts. Over the following 18 years, he injected himself with venom over 800 times, and was bitten around 200. He was bitten by various deadly species such as coastal taipans, water cobras, diamondback rattlesnakes, mojave rattlesnakes, and all four species of mamba.
After the incident, Friede aimed to be able to survive two venomous snakebites in one night without requiring antivenom. He taught himself immunology, using Stanley Plotkin's textbook Vaccines as a guide, and became more methodical with his venom injections, using carefully measured and timed doses. These practices frequently resulted in side effects such as anaphylactic shocks, allergic reactions, and blackouts. Over the following 18 years, he injected himself with venom over 800 times, and was bitten around 200. He was bitten by various deadly species such as coastal taipans, water cobras, diamondback rattlesnakes, mojave rattlesnakes, and all four species of mamba.
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