Food is a precious resource in increasingly scant supply. Increasing the productivity of the agricultural industry through crop protection is crucial, yet there’s growing pressure on the agricultural industry to reduce its reliance on unsustainable chemicals. Traditional pesticides can cause harm to people, pollinators, and other wildlife, with the potential for accumulation in water and soil to cause lasting environmental damage.

CPI supported Newcastle University in scaling up the production of its newly developed biopesticide candidate. Inspired by nature, biopesticides have the potential to target a crop’s pests without killing other species.

The Newcastle team had already cloned venom proteins from a tube-web spider, which injects its prey with a lethal mixture of peptide venoms. To make this effective when eaten by pests, the venom peptide needed to be coupled to a larger biomolecule that carries it through the insect’s gut wall and into its tissues.