An expert in environmental toxins at a U.K. university has developed a new antifungal technology which is said to have the potential to play a major role in securing future food supplies. 

Professor Simon Avery from the University of Nottingham's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences discovered that two agents, when combined, affected the process of protein synthesis and had the potential to effectively block fungal growth in certain types of fungi which cause disease in crops or in humans.

Crop losses due to fungal spoilage each year are equivalent to the amount of food that could feed up to four billion people, according to the university.

It added that in the developed world, millions of ton of crops were ruined each year by fungi and the problem was worse in developing countries where access to fungicides is more limited.

A common problem with fungicides in that the fungi often develops resistance to the treatment meaning the fungicides are only effective for a limited period. However, the solution developed by Avery uses two agents which should make it more difficult for the fungi to acquire resistance to the treatment.

"Protein synthesis is essential to enable organisms to grow," he said.

"When these two agents are applied it causes errors in the synthesis process that stop the fungus growing."

After making the breakthrough discovery, which is patented by the university, Avery and his team received initial development support through the University's HERMES scheme - an internal fellowship programme supporting outreach, innovation and business engagement.

This enabled him to secure additional funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Science and Research Council (BBSRC) to further develop the technology.

Field trials will take place this summer to study the impact of the fungicides on crops which are subjected to different environmental conditions.

In terms of the fungicide's commercial potential, the university's director of intellectual property and commercialisation, Dr Susan Huxtable, said the future was promising.

“This fungicidal technology has real commercial potential," she said.

"It is one of a number of exciting technologies that we are currently developing within the agricultural sector, which we believe could play a significant role in the future of farming globally.

“We are particularly keen to hear from any businesses which might be interested in working with us to take Professor Avery’s fungicides to a stage where they can be commercialised.”

Photo: University of Nottingham, via Wikimedia Creative Commons

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