NSF Award
9460072
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is directed at determining the feasibility of a new enzymatic process for synthesizing insect pheromones. Pheromones are nontoxic, naturally occurring chemicals that show great promise in controlling insect pests in agriculture. However, there currently is no cost advantage to using pheromones, primarily because pheromones are expensive chemicals. In the Phase I program, unsaturated fatty acids with specific location of a single double bond (which are key, high-value intermediates in numerous pheromones) will be synthesized from inexpensive saturated fatty acids. The proposed new enzymatic-synthesis process is based on enzymes that insects themselves use to produce pheromones. If successful, this process should result in production of pheromones at a cost two to four times less than is the case with traditional chemical synthesis. Researchers believe that this could substantially increase the use of pheromones in agriculture and also result in significant environmental benefits from both synthesis and use of pheromones compared with insecticides. Success in the Phase I program will lead to process development and scale-up in Phase II and commercialization in Phase III.
