How do food plants become resistant to pests? * Tel Aviv 360 podcast of Tel Aviv University
You are invited to listen to the first episode in the new series of concordances "In the end it's all a matter of chemistry". In the current chapter, we will find out how smart polymers circulate inside the human body when they are loaded with a certain drug, and release the drug in a targeted manner only at the site of the disease, in order to treat it optimally without harming healthy body cells. The smart polymers are built based on research in the field of polymers, results of computational models, and results of biological scans. Their goal is to accelerate and significantly improve the optimization process of an active substance, to become more efficient in the shortest period of time by using advanced synthesis and separation systems.
In addition - the continuous increase in the world's population, which currently numbers more than eight billion people, poses a growing challenge of a safe, equitable, available and cheap supply of food to the entire population. The plant protection industry plays an important role in dealing with this global site - by providing effective solutions to diseases and pests that harm agricultural crops and lead to a decrease in the quantity and quality of the global crop.
Even in plants, as in humans, the solution lies in the development of breakthrough technologies to transport the active substances to the active site in the plant or in the pest in a more intelligent and efficient manner while emphasizing the reduction of their environmental footprint.
Prof. Roy Amir, head of the organic chemistry department at the Faculty of Exact Sciences and head of the Adama Center for Innovative Solutions in the Field of Plant Protection at Tel Aviv University, is a guest at the studio.
Moderator: Vared Lebkowitz
