When Alice Accorsi, PhD, first encountered the freshwater snail Pomacea canaliculata, it was as an invasive pest of crops and the intermediate host of a parasitic roundworm that can cause human encephalitis.

Accorsi, then a graduate student at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Modena, Italy, was searching for vulnerabilities in the snail’s immune system that could be targeted to eradicate the pest.