About Venom Labs
Venom Labs is where all the magic happens. Our goal is to develop world leading snake venoms and snake bite antivenoms for both local and international use. Our science team is dedicated to saving lives particularly in 3rd world countries where access to antivenom is limited or not possible.
ABOUT VENOM LABS
Currently, there is a sub tropical epidemic of snakebites particularly in developing nations where there is limited access to antivenoms due to armed conflict, poverty, limited access or poor education. To learn more about the plight of 3rd world nations and lack of antivenom, click HERE.
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Venom labs aims to be a world leader within the snake venom research led by Aishah Pelley (Director) and Tim Carrol (Consultant Scientist). We aim to work with snake venom from all over the world in the development of the most effective antivenoms and to make this readily accessible to all.
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Venom labs milks elapid snakes for venom and this is appropriately stored and handled for the purpose of medical research and creating antivenom in future.
THE PROCESS OF OBTAINING VENOM FOR RESEARCH
The process is carefully documented and ensures safety for both the snake and the handler. It occurs as follows:
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Only Mark Pelley can handle the venomous snakes.
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Snakes are safely removed from their homes and then held as gently as possible but ensuring safety around the neck/head.
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Pre prepared vials with membranes are placed near the snake mouth and upon biting, venom is injected into the vial from the snake. This is an extremely dangerous procedure.
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The venom is then labelled appropriately and stored in appropriate refrigeration.
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Venom not needing to be used immediately can be freeze dried and stored long term.
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HOW IS SNAKE ANTIVENOM MADE
Snake antivenom is actually created as a by product of the venom itself. The process is quite involved. Venom is extracted (as above) from snakes and then stored appropriately. Such venoms are then prepared and then injected into donor animals allow them to develop an immunity to the snake venom. Such donor animals include horses (preferably) or sheep as they have robust immune systems that produce powerful antibodies which bind to snake venom components. This enables the horse (or sheep) to develop immmune defences to elimitate the venom. The blood is harvested from the animals and purified from plasma.
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MONOVALENT VS POLYVALENT
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To better understand snake antivenom, it is important to recognise how it is classified through which venoms (antigens) were used during the production process. When hyperimmunising a donor animal, if a single species of snake is used then it is called a monovalent antivenom (mono = one). If the the antivenom contains neutralising antibodies from more than one species of snake, then it is referred to as a polyvalent antivenom (poly = many).
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COMPOSITION OF ANTIBODIES
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Antivenom composition is techincally classified as either "whole IgG" or "fragments of IgG".
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Whole antibody products are made up of the entire molecule of the antibody (IgG most often). Fragments derived from digesting the IgG into either "Fab" (Monmertic binding) or F(ab')2 (dimetric bimding). Fab stands for "fragment antigent binding" is the selective antigen binding region. The fragment antigent binding is the region on an antibody that binds to antigents (venom) which can be digested to produce 2 Fab fragments and 1 Fc fragment. An antibody can also be digested by pepsin to produce 2 fragments: A pFC fagment and a F(ab')2 fragment.
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Venom Lab Goals
To develop affordable snake antivenoms to be made readily available to 3rd world countries
To be a world leader in venom and antivenom research
To better understand the medicinal properties of snake venom to save lives