Snakebite!

Nick Casewell's team is working to find out way by which people can be saved from being bitten by snakes worldwide. In the UK, there is only one potentially dangerous snake species, which is rarely encountered. In sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, where most snakebite deaths occur, there are many dangerous snakes, including cobras, mambas and vipers. Nick had the opportunity to go to Senegal to collect venomous snakes for his anti-venom research project. His team's target species were the saw-scaled vipers, group of very small dangerous snakes which are extremely well camouflaged. Anti-venoms are made by immunizing animals with tiny (non-harmful) amounts of venom collected from snakes. After a while, the immune system of the animal produces 'antibodies' against the snake venom. As part of the anti-venom research they are carrying out with scientists from Bangor University, they wanted to investigate how effective anti-venom made for one species was at preventing damage caused by different snakes' venom.