SBIR-STTR Award

The seed corn industry in Hawaii is the largest agricultural industry in the state. At $151M (2016 figures) it represents 25% of the State's sector GDP. The islands' tropical climate allows for year- round corn breeding and propagation practices. The constant presence of corn in Hawaii supports more than a dozen flights of corn earworm (CEW) per year making Helicoverpa zea a more significant problem (The Problem) relative to cooler climates. The result of months of communications with Hawaii's seed industry the proposed STTR Phase I collaboration between Lepidext and University of Hawaii Manoa is to develop a viable bio-based corn earworm control method that will suppress CEW population and complement current and potentially future Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies of the industry. Lepidext is developing novel naturally occurring biopesticides to decrease insect populations. Hz™ Lepidext's first biopesticide (The Solution) Insterusis a sexually transmitted virus that sterilizes adult moths suppressing CEW infestations and reducing subsequent generations. Hz™ Insterus is a patented strain of the sterilizing entomopathogen Hz NV2 (Helicoverpa zeanudi virus 2) with markedly increased sterilizing efficiency relative to the wild-type virus. Hz The purpose of this Phase I STTR project is to prove feasibility of Insterus as a powerful tool to reduce H.zea infestations to below kernel damage thresholds in seed corn production systems. Two objectives are proposed for Phase I: to develop low input methods for continuous and Hz synchronous production and delivery of Insterus moths for use in Hawaii (Objective 1); and to Hz evaluate the use of Insterus to reduce H.zea infestations in Foundation and Breeding seed cornfield plots and refine application models for its delivery (Objective 2). A successful Phase 2 projectwould develop the approaches and help to define the complementary technologies required to suppress CEW population levels lowering the need for chemical controls in Phase 3. Lepidext Inc was founded in 2015 after we developed a highly effective CEW sterilizing virus Hz™ strain which was patented and trademarked as Insterus (Insect sterilizing virus). CEW is native to the Americas but has become a major global pest including its unintentional introduction to Hz™ Hawaii. Insterus is designed to prevent pest damage by sterilizing moths to prevent caterpillars Hz™ rather than targeting caterpillars in the field. The optimal use case for Insterus may be in Hz™ conjunction with existing methods for pest control. Insterus has a potential total addressable market of $12B estimated by the annual acreage planted with corn cotton and soybeans in the Americas that are currently threatened by the pest.