Peptides to target pest insects

SOLASTA Bio, with lead co-founders Professor Shireen Davies and Professor Julian Dow, started trading in 2021, as a Venture Capital-backed early stage company. SOLASTA’s rapid platform technology is based on peptides developed to selectively target insect pests while being safe for insect pollinators. The peptides impact insect behaviour and mortality, thus reducing insect pest populations and attendant crop damage.

BBSRC funding supported product development, including fundamental research led by Professor Davies into G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which are receptors on the surface of cells that receive messages affecting cell and organismal behaviour.

A BBSRC Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship to Professor Davies in 2019, provided the support and training necessary for the commercialisation of the research, and BBSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts and AgriTech Catalyst funding helped with market research and accelerated progress.

Field trials of the peptides in the UK, Europe and the USA against several pests – including aphids, Spotted Wing Drosophila, caterpillars and leafhoppers – demonstrated SOLASTA Bio’s bioinsecticides to be as effective, if not better, at controlling pests compared to commercial standards and had no negative impact on beneficial insects.

SOLASTA Bio is on track to bring products to market in 2027, in at least half the time it traditionally takes to bring synthetic chemical pest control to market, and in the meantime is expanding its operations overseas.