Development and commercial exploitation of a novel fungicide designed to combat resistance in agriculture

真菌作为粮食作物、人类的病原体和食品腐败生物体可能是毁灭性的。新的、有效的防治真菌生长的方法具有巨大的潜在价值。通过以前的BBSRC资助的工作，我们发现了一种新的两种药物的组合，对真菌的抑制作用大大增强。联合治疗是高度寻求的，因为它们对抗耐药性并且使用较少量的活性剂。我们随后的探路者项目已经确定了一条非常有前景的商业途径来利用这项技术：作为一种杀菌剂来帮助保护粮食作物。2014年，农业杀菌剂市场预计价值121.25亿美元，并且正在增长。通过探路者，四家重要的农用化学品公司已正式表达了他们对我们的发现和新杀菌剂的潜在开发的兴趣。该后续基金提案将关键技术工作与商业开发相结合，以便将技术推向市场。

Fungi can be devastating as pathogens of food-crops, of humans and as food spoilage organisms. There is great potential value in new, effective treatments for controlling fungal growth. Through previous BBSRC-funded work, we discovered a novel combination of two agents with greatly amplified inhibitory action against fungi. Combination treatments are highly sought as they counter drug resistance and use smaller amounts of active agents. Our subsequent Pathfinder project has identified a very promising commercial path for exploiting this technology: as a fungicide to help preserve food crops. The agricultural fungicide market was forecast to be worth $12,125 million in 2014, and is growing. Through the Pathfinder, four important agri-chemical companies have formally expressed their interest in our findings and in potential development of a new fungicide. This Follow on Fund proposal combines key technical work with commercial development in order to take the technology towards market.