13TSB_ACT Putting the Ecology into Efficacy: a new paradigm for pesticide discovery

化学作物保护仍然是应对粮食安全、害虫地理分布变化和虫害抗性出现等挑战的核心。一旦确定候选分子，新的农药产品的发现采用筛选方法进行大量的经验优化。该项目将研究农药发现/优化的新范例。在这种情况下，开发过程将由对目标物种生态的详细了解驱动，这些物种将被置于建模框架内，以确定作物保护产品的最佳分子特性、配方、时间和放置。

Chemical crop protection remains central to meeting the challenges of food security, changes in geographical distribution of pests, and emergence of pest resistance. Discovery of new pesticidal products adopts a screening approach with largely empirical optimisation once candidate molecules are identified. This project will investigate a new paradigm in pesticide discovery/optimisation. Therein, the development process will be driven by detailed understanding of the ecology of target species bedded within a modelling framework to identify optimal molecular properties, formulation, timing and placement of the crop protection product.