Watch more News on iWantTFC

SALT LAKE CITY — Filipino scientist Baldomero Olivera collected and classified colorful cone snail shells while growing up in the Philippines.

"I grew up in the Manila area," he said, "and probably started collecting shells when I was about 9 years old."

Decades later — box by box, shelf after shelf — Olivera continues to accumulate a treasure trove of shells. But what really fascinates him about the marine creatures isn't their protective outer cases. It's the chemical strategy these predators use to hunt and paralyze their prey.

"The important thing about cone snails is that, like snakes or scorpions or spiders, they're venomous animals," he said.

While working in Manila in the early 1970s, Olivera, thanks in part to his childhood hobby, started to study these pocket-sized, ocean-dwelling organisms and the nature of their venom.

"No one had worked on cone snails in a biochemically directed fashion," he said. "And so [Lourdes] Luly Cruz, who had also joined the same faculty, we decided that we would work together on a joint project."

Despite having limited equipment, the two scientists got to work, quickly discovering that the venom these sea snails use to capture and make a meal out of fish contains small peptides or "conotoxins."

In the following years, Olivera and Cruz would move this project to the University of Utah and team up with undergraduate students. Together, they picked apart the puzzle of peptides, examining the effects of conotoxins on the central nervous system and uncovering their medicinal potential.

"We have one peptide that's been approved as a drug: Ziconotide," Olivera said. "Two other peptides, which have reached clinical development, so they're in human clinical trials."

Thanks to their work, other scientists are now exploring the possibility of using conotoxins to treat a wide range of illnesses, including epilepsy and diabetes.

"Where we are today is just great," Olivera said, "because we have wonderful potential for doing even more."

For their breakthroughs in cone snail research, including the discovery of that non-opioid pain reliever, Olivera, Cruz, and their co-researchers were recently recognized with the 2022 Golden Goose Award, which honors federally funded research that unexpectedly benefits society.

"I'm extremely lucky and very happy to have been able to go through this journey," Olivera said. "And I think serendipity really played a huge role because along the way, we sort of moved forward in ways that ultimately led to things we never expected."

Today, Olivera continues to study cone snails, but at this point in his career, he says his main focus is on inspiring the next generation of scientists in both the United States and the Philippines.