Researchers are studying a cheaper and faster way to treat venomous snake bites, and the study focuses on a marsupial that could help ease the pain.

Scientists say opossums are immune to snake venom, but if a venomous snake bites a human, it can be deadly.

"A lot of local tissue injury and tissue damage, it produces a lot of coagulation effects, so it affects the blood’s ability to coagulate and stop bleeding, so you may start bleeding from areas you wouldn’t expect to," said Dr. Alfred Aleguas, Managing Director of Florida Poison Information Center at Tampa General Hospital.

Dr. Aleguas says traditional antivenin treatments can start with four to six vials. The treatment can cause adverse reactions and is very expensive.

That’s why Dr. Claire Komives with San Jose’ State University presented her research at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting. Her research is working toward developing an opossum-based antidote.

"The mice that received the venom only, died within 12 hours,” said Dr. Komives. “The mice that received the same amount of venom but incubated with the peptide showed no effect. They never showed any effects of the envenomation. Basically the venom was completely naturalized."

Dr. Aleguas says the research is promising.

"It will be a direct neutralization and according to the researcher, it should only require a single dose," said Dr. Aleguas.

It's exciting research, especially since Poison Control says there were 350 venomous snake bites in Florida in 2014.

"It’s obviously years away, I think, from being produced and being approved and going through the whole process," said Dr. Aleguas. “But it really is extremely interesting, very promising, and it really could make a huge impact on a lot of people’s lives."