Slug slime is trending.
Various media outlets have picked up on a new study detailing an experimental medical glue inspired by the slug species Arion subfuscus. The material shows promise as an adhesive that could replace stitches and staples because it maintains its sticky properties even when slick with blood.
Andy Smith, a professor of biology at Ithaca College, researches that very species of slug for those exact properties. Though he wasn’t involved in the new study, which was published in the journal Science, his research played a key role in the development of the new adhesive, and he has been quoted extensively in media reports because of his expertise on the matter.
“When I discovered these slugs and picked one of them up, I knew this material was really amazing. It literally oozes off the back of the slug and sets in seconds into a really tough, elastic gel,” he told The Smithsonian.
Smith has also provided insight and commentary to reports in the Washington Post and Reader’s Digest.
In 2013, Smith and his research were featured on the IC News site and in the college’s alumni magazine, IC View.