The next frontier of drug research may be underwater.

President Donald Trump has officially declared the nation's opioid crisis a national public health emergency. In November, he appointed counselor Kellyanne Conway to head efforts against it and agreed to contribute a portion of his salary to fighting it. Now, thanks to a nearly $10 million grant from the Department of Defense, researchers from the University of Utah Health are getting in on the efforts.

And this multi-disciplinary team of scientists is looking to venomous sea snails to combat the epidemic.

"Our goal is to generate a pipeline of different possibilities for non-opioid drugs," says Toto Olivera, a biologist involved in the research. "We think that the