Two and a half minutes. That’s how long the video lasts, in which a thin man with short hair walks into a room, pulls a black mamba–one of the world’s deadliest snakes–out of a box, and lets it bite his left arm. Immediately afterward, he offers his right arm to a taipan from Papua New Guinea. He then calmly thanks viewers for watching, as blood begins to trickle down his arm. Then he walks away. The shocking story, reported by The New York Times, is about a 57-year-old man living in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
Tim Friede is not a scientist in the conventional sense. Yet, thanks to his body scarred by around 200 snake bites –and according to some sources, 856 bites, carefully measured doses of venom voluntarily injected–he may have contributed to the most significant scientific breakthrough in the fight against snake bites: the development of a universal antivenom.
The numbers speak for themselves. According to estimates, about 2.7 million people are bitten by venomous snakes each year. Of these, 120,000 die and another 400,000 suffer permanent damage. And these figures are likely underreported. As deforestation, urbanization, and climate change increase the risk of human-snake encounters, research into antivenoms has largely remained anchored to methods developed 130 years ago.
Now, researchers analyzing Friede’s blood have identified antibodies capable of neutralizing the venoms of multiple different species. The findings were published in the prestigious journal Cell and are considered a potential turning point in tropical medicine. Friede reportedly said he was proud to be able to do something for humanity, even for people living 5,000 miles away whom he would never meet.
His incredible journey as a “human guinea pig” began with a harmless bite at the age of five from a garter snake. But it was only after marriage and the birth of his children that he began conducting increasingly extreme experiments.
He explained that he would work all day, then come home, play with his kids, and spend the evenings in the basement conducting his experiments. At that time, his home housed 60 venomous snakes. He endured accidental bites, anaphylactic shocks, fainting episodes, and once even fell into a coma for four days. Though self-taught, he maintained that no university could teach what he had learned through his own body.
For years, Friede continued his solitary research, subjecting himself to venom injections and bites in the hope of developing immunity that could serve a greater purpose. In 2017, his efforts caught the attention of Jacob Glanville, an immunologist and CEO of the startup Centivax, who was looking for individuals with similar experiences for an innovative project. When Glanville contacted him, Friede reportedly responded that he had been waiting for that call for a long time.
The study, led by Glanville in collaboration with Peter Kwong, an immunology expert at Columbia University in New York, found that two powerful antibodies in Friede’s blood, when combined with a molecule called varespladib, were capable of protecting mice from the venom of 19 different deadly species.
It was a groundbreaking discovery, considering that currently available antivenoms only work for a handful of snakes from the same geographic area. Sometimes, the risk of severe allergic reactions to today’s serums produced in horses or sheep is even greater than the danger posed by the venom itself.
Experts now aim to test the treatment on dogs in Australia and are searching for an additional component, possibly once again present in Friede’s blood, to ensure full protection against all analyzed species.
The last experiment Friede underwent was in 2018: a bite from a water cobra. But just a few days later, his personal life changed drastically—his wife left him, taking the children with her. At that moment, he finally realized that his long path of sacrifice had reached its limit. Although he still misses the reptiles, he admitted that he does not regret the painful bites that had long marked his body.
