238 Antivenom Breakthrough

238 Antivenom Breakthrough

From Herpetological Highlights by Herpetological Highlights

December 17, 2025 · 30 min · Episode 238

About this episode

This episode discusses new antivenom technology for cobras in Africa and introduces two new species of sleepyhead snakes from Venezuela.

New methods in antivenom technology may yield a treatment that works on most of the cobras in Africa, thanks to the blood of alpacas and some very clever scientists. Then we follow up with two new species of sleepyhead snake from Venezuala. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/herphighlights/shop Full reference list available here: http://www.herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Ahmadi S, Burlet NJ, Benard-Valle M, Guadarrama-Martínez A, Kerwin S, Cardoso IA, Marriott AE, Edge RJ, Crittenden E, Neri-Castro E, Fernandez-Quintero ML, Nguyen GTT, O’Brien C, Wouters Y, Kalogeropoulos K, Thumtecho S, Ebersole TW, Dahl CH, Glegg-Sørensen EU, Jansen T, Boddum K, Manousaki E, Rivera-de-Torre E, Ward AB, Morth JP, Alagón A, Mackessy SP, Ainsworth S, Menzies SK, Casewell NR, Jenkins TP, Ljungars A, Laustsen AH. 2025. Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09661-0. Species of the Bi-Week: Esqueda LF, Rojas-Runjaic FJM, Prudente A, Bazó S, Navarrete LF, Carmargo-Sillet E, Ortiz JC, Correa C, Guerrero P, Urra F. 2025. A first phylogenetic and taxonomic…

Topics covered

  • antivenom technology
  • cobras
  • Venezuela
  • new species
  • sleepyhead snake

Keywords

  • antivenom
  • cobras
  • alpacas
  • Venezuela
  • sleepyhead snake

Mentioned in this episode

Products: antivenom technology, sleepyhead snake

Places: Africa, Venezuala, Burlet NJ, Venezuela

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