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Kartik Sunagar @venomdetective

🇮🇳 Professor @iiscbangalore & @LabVenomics | 🐍 Founder @Venomics AI | 🧬 Venom antibody research | 💊 Decoding venoms for medicines | 📸 Wildlife photography

Joined April 2011
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Kartik Sunagar@venomdetective
21 Jun 2022
This is a dream come true! Ecstatic to announce that @LabVenomics at @CES_IISc, @iiscbangalore, in association with @official_ibab, and with funding from @ITBTGoK, the Government of Karnataka, will establish an ‘Antivenom Research and Development Centre’ in Bangalore.
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India carries the world’s deadliest snakebite burden, yet next-gen solutions remain underexplored. Delighted to receive an @Anthropic Science AI grant to accelerate antibody discovery at @LabVenomics, @iiscbangalore. #AIforScience #Snakebite #IISc #venomdetective
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It’s another #ToxinTuesday! 🐍 This week on Venom Detective: the many faces of the spectacled cobra. Across India, Naja naja varies in colour, markings, ecology & venom. But is it one adaptable species, or many hidden lineages? Read: venomdetective.com/posts/spe… @LabVenomics

The Spectacled Cobra: One Snake, Many Faces?

Are all these cobras really one widespread species, or are there hidden species concealed under the familiar name Naja naja?

venomdetective.com
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Toxin Tuesday #3 | The Boy Who Followed Snakes into Science This one is personal: a story about childhood curiosity, snakes, unexpected turns, and why the strange obsessions we grow up with may be worth following Read here: lnkd.in/ec54pMWe #VenomDetective @LabVenomics

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Russell’s viper venom is not one thing. It is toxic teamwork. Our latest Venom Detective case file explores how SVMPs and PLA2s work together to amplify damage — and how breaking this synergy could transform snakebite treatment. Read: venomdetective.com/posts/rus… #VenomDetective
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Excited to share the new avatar of my personal website — Venom Detective, vibe-coded from scratch! 😎 Venomous creatures, evolution, biodiversity, field stories, photography, snakebite science, and therapeutic discovery — all in one place. 🌐 venomdetective.com

Kartik Sunagar - The Venom Detective

Exploring the natural world through a lens and a laboratory.

venomdetective.com
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We planned for a quite Arthur's round table. The literal Khanate-e-Omics showed up 💪🇮🇳 #aixblr @ravishar313 @anaturalist
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Excited to host an AI×Bio event this Saturday at IISc, bringing together researchers, innovators, and founders to explore how AI is transforming biology, medicine, and biotech innovation. Looking forward to a day of ideas, conversations, and collaborations. #AI #Biotech #IISc
Ravi Sharma
@ravishar313
Apr 20
Are you interested/building in AIxBio? Are you in Bangalore? Me, @anaturalist and @vinayprabhu are organising "AIxBio BLR" at IISc this Saturday, April 25th at 11:30 AM. The goal? Build the community that is missing and help each other in any way possible. We have Founders, PhDs, Faculty, PostDocs attending the event. If you are building something in the space or have a unique expertise, we would love to have you. Register on the link below.
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🌟 Excited to share our latest publication: a small yet important piece of work! 📚✨ 🐍 Hiss and tell: What influences venom yields of India’s big four snakes? Here, we explore venom yields of India’s “big four” snakes: 🔗 Read here: journals.plos.org/plosntds/a…

Hiss and tell: What influences venom yields of India’s big four snakes?

Author summary Snakebite is a neglected tropical disease causing substantial mortality and disability in India. Although venom composition and toxicity are well characterised for the “big four”...

journals.plos.org
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Special appreciation to snake rescuers nationwide who risk their lives to protect others. Many of them contribute significantly to our work
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Congrats to my incredible students—Prasad Gond, MIHIR KUMAR, and Ajinkya Unawane! Their dedication and perseverance were key to collecting venoms, analyzing data, and publishing this work. 👏🎉
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Our latest in Communications Medicine shows how repurposing existing drugs can tackle snakebites. We demonstrate the effectiveness of small molecule inhibitors in treating bites from Russell's viper, responsible for nearly half of India's snakebite cases. tinyurl.com/244trx96
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4. Their production would not involve animal harm if they replace antivenoms. 5. They have the potential to be broadly neutralizing.
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Amazing work by my postdoc, Rudresha GV. His hard work and dedication made this possible. Many thanks to dear friend and collaborator, @nickcasewell.
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Publication alert! Predictive Modelling of Bioclimatic Venom Variation in Russell’s Viper. journals.plos.org/plosntds/a…

Significant Serpents: Predictive Modelling of Bioclimatic Venom Variation in Russell’s Viper

Author summary Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii), with a near-country-wide distribution across the Indian subcontinent, causes the highest number of snakebite deaths and disabilities. A considerable...

journals.plos.org
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However, the deployment of these solutions depends on the venom profile of the population/region. Since its extremely difficult to sample venom from various places (administrative constraints), venom profiles of many populations remain unexplored.
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To address this, we have generated models that can predict the venom profiles of Russell's viper populations based on the environmental conditions of the region. This study, for the first time, highlights how temperature and rainfall can shape the venoms of Russell's vipers.
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