Alice Accorsi, a molecular and cellular biologist at UC Davis, thinks the golden apple snail can one day cure blindness.

This South American freshwater mollusk can regenerate complex, human-like “camera-type” eyes from scratch. The cornea, lens, retina, and all the parts that make seeing possible are all remade from nothing, at will, like an ocular Wolverine.

In a study published in Nature Communications, Accorsi’s team dissected, scanned, and gene-edited these snails to understand how their regeneration ability works. On day 1 of its eye-rebuilding journey, the apple snail starts by healing the wound.

Then, the process proceeds to cell migration and specialization, which occurs from days 3 to 15. By the 15th day, all the structures of a fully functioning eye are in place. They will con

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