SBIR Phase I: Attenu, a novel platform technology for developing attractants and repellents for the domestic honeybee, Apis mellifera.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I research project will develop a novel platform technology to facilitate the discovery of products to alter insect behavior. These novel insect control products manipulate insect behavior by interfering with the insects chemosensory pathway. This proposal uses the honeybee, an economically significant insect with established genetics and biology, as a model system. The project will establish a novel high throughput assay system for identifying molecules that interact with insect chemosensory proteins and use this system to screen a combinatorial chemical library for small molecules that bind to honeybee proteins. Commercially, the application addresses a critical need for environmentally friendly insect control products that use rational design to manipulate insect behavior via efficient products that interact with the chemosensory system. Broad-spectrum insecticides are widely used, but many damage the environment and threaten human health. The project will develop novel, high-throughput methods to isolate small molecules that act on compounds that would interact with insect chemosensory proteins and alter the way in which insects perceive and react to environmental stimuli. Although this proposal is specifically targeted to the honeybee, this research will ultimately make chemosensory-based control of other insect species technologically feasible. The eventual goal is to develop a broad range of products that will be cost competitive with insecticides, repellents, and attractants but maintain all of the environmental and safety benefits associated with the use of pheromones.