Countervailing viper venoms

Using snakes' own defenses against venom

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Sean Carroll and Fiona Ukken describe how to use snakes' own proteins as an antivenom.

In this episode, we cover:

•[00:00] Introduction.

•[00:54] Evolutionary biologist Sean Carroll introduces the problem of snakebites and the availability of effective antivenoms.

•[02:14] Carroll and geneticist Fional Ukken tell how they came to study protective FETUA proteins.

•[03:48] Carroll and Ukken explain what they learned about the effectiveness of combinations of FETUA proteins.

•[05:11] Carroll describes the broad the protection the proteins afford across species.

•[06:33] He explores the implications for snakebite treatment.

•[07:25] Carroll and Ukken list the caveats and limitations of the study.

•[09:16] Conclusion.