More from the 2015 article ...

... A simple peptide could save countless future snakebite victims in developing countries, researchers announced at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Denver. The antivenom relies on a sequence of just 11 amino acids, copied from an opossum protein.

The research team, led by Claire F. Komives of San Jose State University, also demonstrated that genetically modified bacteria could produce the protective peptide at low costs.

Komives unveiled the antivenom candidate in a Division of Biochemical Technology session in Denver on Sunday. But the fundamental discoveries behind the findings were made nearly 20 years ago by a researcher named Binie V. Lipps.

Opposums have an innate immunity to a variety of snake venoms. Lipps isolated the protein responsible for this immunity and found that peptides containing its first 10 or 15 amino acids seemed to contain all of the protein's antivenomous properties. She first patented the work in 1996. ...