Galleria Envenoming Model (G.E.M.)

Snakebite envenoming (SBE) annually kills ~100,000 people worldwide, with 4-fold more suffering life-altering morbidity.

Antivenom, the only approved treatment, requires preclinical models to assess efficacy and safety as an essential part of the regulated manufacturing  process. In accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) ‘Guidelines for the production, control, and regulation of antivenom immunoglobulins’, the only validated assays to determine the potential clinical effectiveness of an antivenom are preclinical rodent models (typically mice). These procedures are rated ‘severe’ in the UK and EU, are labour-intensive and require high animal numbers. Following the inclusion of SBE on the WHO Neglected Tropical Disease list in 2017, supported by WHO’s SBE 2019 roadmap, there has been increased research into SBE therapies, focused on improved efficacy, safety and affordability. The increased activity in this area further emphasises the need for a validated, alternative model to the current severe models, to minimise the suffering of thousands of mice per year.

Galleria mellonella have gained momentum as a replacement for vertebrate models in the last decade. Developing a Galleria model for SBE would provide a lower-cost, lower-labour intensive, high-throughput non-vertebrate alternative model.

Galleria Envenoming Model (G.E.M.)

Following on from our promising pilot data, we were awarded an NC3Rs project grant. Within this grant we aim to;