Inspired by snails, a new drug delivery project has received a considerable funding boost. As any gardener can tell you, nothing possesses the ability to strike fear into your heart like the slow, remorseless march of a leaf-seeking snail, precision-targeted to the most vulnerable and delicious plants, as my dear lupins can attest. Scatter as many eggshells as you like; they shall not relent. Now, thanks to a research grant awarded to a multidisciplinary team of University of Manchester (UK) researchers, led by aerospace engineer Mostafa Nabawy, cancer cells may soon know this fear. Cancer therapies are becoming increasingly advanced, but off-target, systemic effects still pose serious complications for doctors and patients alike, making the delivery of a critical dose to the site of a tumor challenging to achieve without inducing adverse effects in the patient. In order to address this issue, the UK Research Institute’s (UKRI; Swindon, UK) Cross Research Council Responsive Mode scheme, which supports interdisciplinary projects, has awarded a University of Manchester research project with almost £1 million in funding to produce a delivery method that enables highly targeted drug release directly at tumor sites. The pitch is co-led by Mostafa Nabawy (owning robotics), Mohamed Elsawy (owning bionanomaterials), William Sellers (owning biomechanics), Katie Finegan (owning cancer biology) and Lee Margetts (owning digital twins). The pitch that caught the UKRI’s eye was inspired by snails, specifically their movement. When asked the obvious question by BioTechniques: “why snails?” Mostafa explained that “gastropod molluscs such as snails use slime-based locomotion…
