Each year, more than 2 million people around the world suffer from venomous snakebites. According to the World Health Organization, over 100,000 die, and another 300,000 experience permanent disability — including limb deformities, amputations, and other lasting complications.
Most of these cases, across Asia, Africa and Latin America, occur in areas where resources are stretched and antivenom treatments are scarce, expensive or ineffective. Current antivenom therapies, derived from animal plasma, are also difficult to produce and carry risks of severe side effects.
Using AI to combat snakebites
A team of researchers at the University of Washington is working to change that — with help from artificial intelligence and federal research support. In a new study published Nature, the UW’s Baker Lab, part of the prestigious Institute for Protein Design, introduced a new approach: AI-generated proteins that counteract deadly snake toxins. These custom toxin-binding proteins could pave the way for safer, more cost-effective, and widely available next-generation snakebite treatments.
“I believe protein design will help make snake bite treatments more accessible for people in developing countries. The antitoxins we’ve created are easy to discover using only computational methods. They’re also cheap to produce and robust in laboratory tests,” says recent Baker Lab researcher Susana Vázquez Torres, lead on the project. Using a powerful deep learning tool called AlphaFold2, UW scientists have designed new proteins that can bind to and neutralize a wide range of snake toxins.
The goal? To create a universal antivenom — one that’s safer, faster to produce, and more broadly effective than current treatments. “This could be the first major leap forward in antivenom development in decades,” says David Baker, Nobel Prize-winning professor of biochemistry and director of the Institute for Protein Design. It’s a great example of how federal investment in basic research and technology can lead to practical solutions that save lives.”
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The problem with traditional antivenoms
Conventional antivenoms are made by injecting animals — typically horses — with small doses of venom, then collecting the antibodies their bodies produce. The process is expensive, time-consuming, and often results in treatments that:
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Work for only a narrow set of snake species (A cobra antivenom might be useless or harmful for a viper or rattlesnake bite, for example.)
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Require refrigeration and careful transport
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Can cause severe allergic reactions in patients
This new method eliminates the custom creation step entirely. By combining AI with advanced protein design, the UW team created small, stable proteins called “mini-binders” that attach to key components of snake venom and neutralize them. The UW-designed antivenom proteins are intended to work across a wide range of venom types. That could eliminate the need for species-specific treatments — a huge breakthrough, especially in rural areas where the right antivenom may not be on hand (or even exist).
In early lab tests, some of these proteins successfully protected mice from otherwise lethal doses of venom.
Hope for a global solution
The implications of this breakthrough go far beyond the lab. The new proteins could be manufactured using existing biotechnology infrastructure, making them cheaper and easier to scale for use in regions most affected by snakebite deaths.
The research was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and the Audacious Project, among others.
Innovation with impact
Snakebites might not make headlines — but they’re a public health crisis in many parts of the world. This work from UW shows how American research can power bold solutions, even for problems most people don’t think about until it’s too late.
It’s one more example of how federal support for science and innovation benefits communities near and far — and why it’s essential to keep that momentum going.
Research Makes America
This story is part of Research Makes America — an ongoing effort by the University of Washington to demonstrate how research supported by federal funding drives innovation, opportunity, and national progress.
