Artificial snail mucus could advance cancer treatments

Marie Wei, a senior studying molecular and cellular biology and classics at the Krieger School, had unique pets growing up – snails. Today, she hopes to reduce snail cruelty and reimagine snail mucus-based drugs and products with her teammate, Cecelia Zhang, a biomedical engineering senior at the Whiting School, by creating synthetic snail mucus.   

In ancient Greece, snail mucus was used to treat wounds. Today, it’s a popular moisturizing skincare product, and medical research shows it can create a strong adhesive, repair tissue, treat inflammation, and slow the growth of tumors.   

Wei and Zhang believe its effects are due to its key protein, which has been coined epiphragmin. Their project, “AminoArtisans,” focuses on reproducing this protein as a first step in making artificial snail mucus and received a $2500 grant from the Whiting School’s Student Initiatives Fund in 2024. 

“Because we are engineering protein, which is metaphorically a way to craft protein into whatever you want, we call ourselves artisans,” Wei says. “And we choose ‘amino’ because it’s referring to amino acids, which are the building blocks for protein and life.”  

Although snail mucus is known for its benefits, there isn’t much research that explains why it works, according to Wei. 

“Researchers have been putting raw mucus into cancer cells and seeing them metastasize slower,” Wei says, “But they’ve never actually understood what’s happening on a molecular level and what’s allowing these outcomes to happen.”  

“When we understand how snail mucus works on a molecular level, we can engineer it to be a stronger drug or a more useful substance,” she adds. “By producing mucus inside a lab, we also can reduce the need for snail farms and make that industry more efficient, lucrative, and cruelty-free.”  

To force snails to secrete slime, traditionally, they were dunked in pots of water with salt and vinegar or manually cracked open, harming or killing the snail. Over time, snail farmers have developed other extraction methods, like Muller machines which spray snails with an acidic solution promoting mucus production or having snails crawl on a mesh in a dark, quiet room, leaving mucus in their trails.   

A Muller machine can process up to 4,000 snails in an hour producing three gallons of mucus. If a farm processes a new batch of snails each hour, they can make up to 24 gallons in one eight-hour day. After one mucus extraction session, the snails return to their farm for at least one month to eat, become stronger, and be able to produce mucus again.   

“If we can directly make snail mucus, and we can streamline this protocol, then maybe it only takes three hours to get the same yield as the current protocols,” Zhang says.  

Once they successfully create a synthetic snail mucus, the pair plan to make it available for skincare manufacturers and medical drug research. At the same time, they’ll work on enhancing certain features of their synthetic mucus through protein mutagenesis or gene mutation. For example, it could be made more adhesive or be able to target specific cancer cells, but those steps are years away.   

“Sustainable funding is really useful because we might take a lot of trial and error to produce the protein successfully,” Wei says.  

“From a biomolecular perspective, we think certain protein domains contribute to the anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory properties. So, if we want to enhance those parts specifically, we’ll need funding to try all these and see whether they really help,” Zhang adds.  

Wei and Zhang decided to explore epiphragmin when they met as freshmen in 2022. Wei’s passion for snails and knowledge of molecular DNA cloning, paired with Zhang’s protein expertise, led them to join forces. They officially formed the project when they successfully pitched it to AgaraBio, a student-led community lab at Johns Hopkins, and received $750 to start initial experiments.  

From there, they developed a proposal for the Whiting School of Engineering’s Student Initiatives Fund. The fund, managed by Whiting alumni and friends of the school, is designed to increase opportunities for students to build practical applications that may solve real-world problems. This year, AminoArtisans: Snail Epiphragmin Protein Project received $2,500 to buy lab supplies, more DNA fragments, bacteria, and chemical reagents to further their attempts to reproduce epiphragmin.  

Since receiving the grant, the pair have been able to share their findings beyond Johns Hopkins at two local scientific conferences. 

“I’m really grateful that I am part of this vibrant scientific community. And because I’m here as a Hopkins student, I can connect with our successful alumni in terms of scientific achievements, intellectual inspirations, and funding support,” Wei says.  

Wei and Zhang plan to continue working together through graduate school, where Wei will focus on cancer biology, and Zhang will study epigenetics. They hope to get more funding and recruit team members to support their efforts in synthesizing snail mucus.   

“I am really looking forward to transforming it into an actual product or at least a streamlined protocol to help people in everyday life,” Zhang says. 

By Tayjah Brown