Christopher McCusker

• BSc Biology (Cellular and Molecular Biology)
• Development and Production of Novel Biopesticides

Food supply needs to increase by 70% to meet the needs of an additional 2.3 billion people by the year 2050. EU Directives banning many synthetic pesticides is driving the need to seek alternative strategies for crop protection.  This project will identify suitable insecticidal molecules from novel sources (including sea anemones; cone snails). Cassettes containing genes encoding these toxins, linked to a carrier molecule to ensure that the biopesticide reaches it target site within the pest insect, will be constructed and expressed in a microbial expression system. The recombinant protein will then be purified and tested for efficacy.

Funding source: Newcastle University