Technion researchers Prof. Beaz Pokroy and Prof. Esti Segal won a prestigious grant for the development of technology that will protect agricultural crops
Two Technion faculty members, Prof. Beaz Pokroy from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering and Prof. Esti Segal from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, won a prestigious grant from the European Union as part of the EIC-Pathfinder program. The program supports research that develops new and ground-breaking technologies - High Risk High Gain. This year, more than 850 proposals were submitted and only 57 proposals were funded.
As part of the winning project, Technion researchers, inspired by nature, will develop innovative materials that will enable sustainable and environmentally friendly treatment of plant diseases, especially those caused by pathogenic fungi. According to recent reports by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), these diseases cause the loss of approximately one third of all agricultural crops in the world. The direct economic damages are estimated at more than 70 billion dollars per year, but the cumulative consequences of the loss of food and the environmental damage are immeasurably greater. Moreover, in the shadow of the climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, the predictions are that due to global warming, these diseases will spread and their incidence will increase.
The methods accepted today for the treatment of plant diseases depend on the extensive use of chemical pesticides. But these substances, which are washed and seeped into the soil, endanger human health and the environment. Moreover, many pathogens have already developed resistance against these agents.
The revolutionary technology developed by Technion researchers, SafeWax, is designed to answer these global challenges through a coating that protects the plant from disease. This is a biomimetic technology, that is, a technology developed inspired by nature. The source of inspiration is the cuticle, a fatty layer covering plants including lotus. The lotus leaves are covered with an array of microscopic bumps that form a super-hydrophobic (water-repellent) layer that serves as a self-cleansing mechanism from pollutants and pathogens.
Inspired by the cuticle, Prof. Pokroy's research group developed a spray that creates a similar structure. The innovation in the spray is in its composition, based on substances characterized by broad and long-term antimicrobial activity. The uniqueness of the technology is in the synergy between the mechanism of the organization of the wax on the surface, leading to the formation of a super-hydrophobic crystalline structure, and the self-antimicrobial activity of those materials. The result: coatings with combined properties of self-cleaning, antibiofouling (reducing the adhesion of microorganisms to the surface) and effective killing of microorganisms on the surface of the plant. The combination of all these leads to passive and active prevention of the establishment of fungal infections and the spread of diseases.
In the European study, the researchers, in cooperation with colleagues from the University of Bologna in Italy and from BASF, will focus on adapting the coatings to important agricultural crops, including vines. The vines in Europe, one of the continent's flagship crops, are particularly sensitive to fungal diseases and are therefore frequently treated with a large amount of pesticides. The European Union already imposes restrictions on the use of these preparations, and some of them are expected to be banned for use due to their toxicity and destructive effects on the environment - which will leave the vines exposed to diseases. This is the background to the choice of the European Union in the project of the Technion researchers and their colleagues, who emphasize that the coatings are safe for humans and the environment and that the raw materials can be obtained from renewable sources.
Program EIC-Pathfinder
More of the topic in Hayadan:
