U of T Technology & Startup Explorer

Plant parasitic nematodes are microscopic worms that impose a severe economic burden on the agricultural industry.  To curtail their effects, chemical agents that reduce the fitness of nematodes, called nematicides, have become widespread throughout the world.  However, the ecological toxicity and human safety of these chemicals has posed a problem and resulted in bans to some of the most used nematicides. Researchers at the University of Toronto have developed the first bioactivatable nematicides. 

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), comprising Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is characterized by chronic, recurrent mucosal inflammation of the digestive tract. Current treatments come with considerable side effects, are very expensive, and only work in ~50% of patients. Despite recent advances, IBD continues to rise in incidence, burdening our health care system, thereby emphasizing the need to find more effective therapies to treat these diseases.

Parasitic nematodes are a major problem in agriculture where their infection of livestock and parasitization of plants are a threat to food security and result in billions of dollars of lost productivity.  Several classes of nematicides, compounds that are toxic to nematodes, have been approved and successfully integrated into the food generation process.  However, two problems with current nematicides are increasing resistance to their effects and serious concerns with their environmental impact, the latter of which has led to withdrawal of commercially successful nematicides from general use. Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered two small molecule scaffolds for potential use as nematicides in agricultural applications.