For nearly two decades, an American mechanic turned self-taught snake expert has done something that sounds suicidal at first glance: he has let some of the world’s deadliest snakes bite him and has injected himself with their venom hundreds of times. The result is a body that can shrug off toxins that routinely kill or maim, and a bloodstream packed with antibodies that researchers now describe as a potential template for a universal antivenom. His story is not a stunt, it is a case study in how one person’s extreme risk has been harnessed to tackle a neglected global health crisis.
What began as a private experiment in building personal immunity has evolved into a formal scientific collaboration, with his blood helping to generate an experimental treatment that protects animals from a broad range of snake species. The journey from backyard bites to cutting edge lab work shows how obsession, biology and biotechnology can intersect in unexpected ways.
The Wisconsin mechanic who made himself a test subject
The man at the center of this saga is Tim Friede, a former truck mechanic from Wisconsin who turned a childhood fascination with reptiles into a radical form of self-experimentation. Timothy Friede, often described simply as an American snake collector and mechanic, began intentionally exposing himself to venomous snakes almost twenty years ago, letting them bite him and injecting measured doses of their venom to push his immune system to adapt. Over time, he was bitten around 200 times and endured a total of 856 venom injections, a tally that would be astonishing even for professional herpetologists.
Accounts of his routine describe a man who would finish a shift in the garage, then head home to a collection of cobras and black mambas and deliberately take hits that could have been fatal. In interviews and social posts, Tim Friede has been portrayed as a self-taught expert who spent 18 years methodically escalating his exposures, turning his own body into a living experiment in venom tolerance. That history is reflected in profiles that introduce readers to “Meet Tim Friede” as a former truck mechanic from Wisconsin and in biographical notes that identify Timothy Friede as an American mechanic and snake collector who chose to be bitten around 200 times, often on camera, to document his growing resistance.
Hundreds of bites, a coma and a missing fingertip
The price of that resistance has been brutal. Tim Friede has spoken about being hospitalized multiple times, slipping into a coma after particularly heavy exposures and coming close to death more than once. One widely shared account describes how he lost part of a finger after a bite, a reminder that even a highly primed immune system cannot always keep up with the tissue-destroying power of certain venoms. He has described the pain of these encounters in blunt terms, emphasizing that each bite felt like a serious medical emergency, not a parlor trick.
Video clips and social media posts show him allowing snakes like black mambas and cobras to latch onto his arms, then riding out the effects at home or in hospital. In one reel, filmed in Wisconsin, he is introduced as a self-taught snake expert who has spent over two decades letting deadly snakes bite him, a practice that would be unthinkable for most people but that he frames as a calculated gamble to build immunity and, eventually, to help others. Another post, titled in the first person as “I’ve let hundreds of venomous snakes bite me on purpose,” recounts how those choices put him in a coma but also created a medical upside once scientists realized how unusual his blood had become.
From backyard experiment to “unparalleled” antibodies
What transformed Tim Friede’s story from fringe curiosity to serious science was the decision by researchers to analyze his blood in detail. Scientists studying his case found that years of controlled exposure had driven his immune system to produce a dense library of antibodies that could neutralize toxins from multiple species. In technical write-ups, these researchers describe isolating antibodies from his plasma and using them to create an experimental antivenom that protected mice from the venom effects of 13 out of 19 of the most dangerous snake species tested, a breadth that traditional antivenoms rarely achieve.
One report characterizes the resulting formulation as “unparalleled,” noting that the blood of a United States man who deliberately injected himself with venom from snakes such as the black mamba yielded antibodies with unusually broad activity. Another analysis explains that scientists have made a potent antivenom using antibodies from a man who has been bitten hundreds of times by venomous snakes, highlighting how this approach could overcome some of the “imperfect remedies” that define current care. In a more general science feature framed as “A Man Who Survived Hundreds of Snakebites,” Timothy Friede is described as a truck mechanic and herpetologist whose extraordinary immunity became the foundation for developing a potent new antivenom.
Building a multiple-snake antivenom from 202 bites
The scale of Tim Friede’s exposures is not just a curiosity, it is a key data point in the development of a new kind of treatment. One detailed account of the project notes that a multiple-snake antivenom was built from the blood of a man bitten 202 times, identifying Tim Friede by name and explaining that he had injected himself with doses of venom from a range of species. Those repeated hits trained his immune system to recognize and neutralize toxins that differ significantly in structure, a prerequisite for any therapy that aims to work across many types of snakebite.
Researchers working with his samples have emphasized that the goal is not to encourage others to copy his methods, but to use the antibodies he generated as a template for safer, lab-based products. In one social media explainer, Tim Friede is described as an American who spent 18 years injecting himself with venom, a regimen that produced 856 injections and hundreds of bites, and whose blood could now underpin a revolution in antivenom science. Another post about him, framed under the line “Bitten Hundreds of Times,” underscores that he endured this ordeal in a world where snakebite remains one of the most neglected tropical health threats, with high rates of amputations and deaths in regions where treatment is limited.
Inside the lab turning his blood into a universal antivenom
The work on Tim Friede’s antibodies has now moved into formal biotech pipelines. He is listed as Director of Herpetology at a company called Centivax, where he is described as an autodidact herpetologist and venom expert who began this journey almost twenty years ago while collecting a highly venomous snake. The company itself presents its mission as developing fully human broad spectrum antivenom, positioning Friede’s unusual immune profile as a starting point for therapies that could be manufactured at scale rather than harvested from individual donors.
Corporate materials from Centivax describe a broader platform that aims to create next generation biologics, while a dedicated biography page for Tim Friede highlights his role in guiding venom collection and experimental design. External explainers note that scientists from major research institutions, including Columbia University, have studied his blood and found powerful antibodies that can block venom from multiple snakes, with early tests in lab mice showing promising protection. A widely shared Instagram post about His immune system explains that it learned to fight back, building special antibodies that can block venom, but also stresses that this came at the cost of hospitalizations, near death experiences and the loss of part of a finger.
The global stakes of one man’s extreme gamble
To understand why scientists are so interested in Tim Friede’s blood, it helps to look at the scale of the problem they are trying to solve. Snakebite envenoming kills tens of thousands of people each year and leaves many more with permanent disabilities, particularly in rural parts of Africa and Asia where access to care is limited. Existing antivenoms are usually species specific, expensive and difficult to distribute, which means that victims often arrive at clinics that do not stock the right product or have no antivenom at all. Reports on Friede’s case repeatedly frame his antibodies as a potential way to create a single treatment that could work against many of the snakes responsible for these deaths.
One detailed feature on his story notes that he has “let hundreds of venomous snakes bite” him on purpose, that it was painful and put him in a coma, but that his blood is now being used to make what some describe as a universal anti venom. Another report, illustrated with Getty Images of a black mamba, calls the resulting antivenom “unparalleled” and stresses that it emerged from the blood of a United States man who deliberately injected himself with venom. A separate account in a tabloid health section, headlined around a “man’s blood used to make universal anti venom,” reiterates that he has let hundreds of venomous snakes bite him and that his case is now central to efforts to build a treatment that could save millions of lives worldwide.
Risk, ethics and the line between obsession and innovation
There is an unavoidable ethical tension in Tim Friede’s story. On one hand, his self experimentation is extreme, medically dangerous and not something any responsible scientist would recommend. On the other, his willingness to endure 856 venom injections and at least 202 bites has generated a unique immune repertoire that could accelerate the development of safer, more effective antivenoms for people who have no say in whether they are bitten. Profiles that introduce readers to Meet Tim Friede often quote him as saying that if anyone is going to take this risk, it should be him, not a child in a remote village with no access to care.
Scientific write ups are careful to separate admiration for his commitment from endorsement of his methods. One overview of the research, framed around Multiple snake antivenom, stresses that the goal now is to reproduce his antibodies in the lab, not to recruit more volunteers to be bitten. Another scientific feature that asks Who Timothy Friede is, describes him as a truck mechanic and herpetologist whose survival of hundreds of snakebites helped scientists develop a potent new antivenom, but it also notes that his path is not a model for standard clinical research. Even his own social media presence, including a reel that introduces Tim Friede as a man who has let deadly snakes bite him for over two decades, frames his story as a cautionary tale as much as a scientific breakthrough.
For now, the most important legacy of his experiment is not his personal immunity but the pipeline it has opened. As researchers refine the antibodies drawn from his blood and companies like universal antivenom projects and Tim Friede collaborations move forward, the hope is that future patients will benefit from his ordeal without ever knowing his name. The man who let deadly snakes bite him for 20 years may have turned his own blood into a marvel, but the real measure of that marvel will be counted in lives saved far from the Wisconsin garage where it all began.
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