SBIR Phase I: Development of Broadly Efficacious Ribonucleic Acid Interference Triggers for Pesticides

SBIR 第一阶段：开发广泛有效的农药核糖核酸干扰触发器

• 批准号: 1647751
• 负责人: Juan Arhancet
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: APSE, Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-15 至 2018-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1647751&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Development; Broadly; Efficacious

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will be the expansion of the range of applications of safe, selective, and effective ribonuclic acid interference (RNAi) triggers for use as pesticides. If successful, this biotechnology will contribute to sustainable food production and enhance biodiversity with minimal use of non-selective pesticides associated with human health costs and harmful impacts to non-target flora and fauna. The intended first product resulting from this project will be an insecticide to control fire ants. It is estimated that fire ants cause $7 billion in damages in the U.S. annually. There are number of products on the market that control fire ants, but few that customers are confident are environmentally benign and completely safe to humans and pets.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop and commercialize topical RNAi-based pesticides. Topical RNAi-based pesticides have been demonstrated in the lab to be very selective with respect to the intended target. They also may be readily modified to combat developed pesticide resistance by target pests. However, due to low efficacy at economically attractive application rates, few pests are currently in the RNAi list of commercial targets. This project specifically addresses the challenges related to 1) RNAi efficacy 2) cost of RNAi triggers. The outcomes of the proposed research would enable 1) lower the cost of topical RNAi-based pesticides by at least four-fold, 2) extend the range of the target insects, and 3) target Solenopsis Invicta Buren (Red Imported Fire Ant, RIFA). Once effective RNAi triggers have been identified, the process will be scaled up for the Phase II proposal. During Phase II, reaction conditions will be optimized at pilot scale to demonstrate the technology's value for production of RNAi triggers needed for field tests on RIFA.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将扩大安全、选择性和有效的核糖核酸干扰 (RNAi) 触发器用作农药的应用范围。如果成功，这种生物技术将有助于可持续粮食生产，并通过尽量减少使用与人类健康成本和对非目标动植物群有害影响相关的非选择性农药来增强生物多样性。 该项目的预期第一个产品将是一种控制火蚁的杀虫剂。 据估计，火蚁每年在美国造成 70 亿美元的损失。 市场上有许多控制火蚁的产品，但很少有客户确信对环境无害且对人类和宠物完全安全的产品。该 SBIR 第一阶段项目旨在开发和商业化基于 RNAi 的局部杀虫剂。实验室已证明基于 RNAi 的局部杀虫剂对于预期目标具有非常高的选择性。它们还可以很容易地进行修改，以对抗目标害虫产生的杀虫剂抗药性。然而，由于在经济上具有吸引力的施用率下功效较低，目前很少有害虫被列入 RNAi 商业目标清单中。该项目专门解决与 1) RNAi 功效 2) RNAi 触发成本相关的挑战。拟议研究的成果将实现：1）将局部 RNAi 杀虫剂的成本降低至少四倍，2）扩大目标昆虫的范围，3）以红火蚁（Red Imported Fire Ant，RIFA）为目标。一旦确定了有效的 RNAi 触发因素，第二阶段提案的流程将扩大。在第二阶段，反应条件将在中试规模上进行优化，以证明该技术对于生产 RIFA 现场测试所需的 RNAi 触发器的价值。