Progress 05/01/05 to 06/30/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: With the execution of our SBIR grant, we conducted and analyzed many experiments with scores of bioassays testing various milkweed extraction procedures, nutrient bases, nutrient supplements, preservatives, stabilizers (and other diet functional components), and testing many environmental conditions. We developed techniques for aqueous, ethanolic and solid extraction. We developed a process of refreshing the artificial host plant in this study and another project: "Development of artificial diet and feeding systems for woolly adelgids" (in cooperation with Dr. Fred Hain of North Carolina State University). The proprietary and novel process shows potential in keeping artificial leaves palatable and nutritious. The process has been extended to a variety of other insects. Further, we are currently working on an early pathogen detection project, when pathogens became a problem, with the company ArrayXpress, a fellow biotechnology incubator company at the Centennial Campus at
North Carolina State University. We developed a grinding and sieving technology gentle enough to retain the stringy structure of the leaf vascular bundles. The grinding and sieving process removes the vascular bundles from the powder leaving almost no latex, which is carried in vascular structures called laticifers. We have extended all of the above technology in a variety of ways. 1) We have made an oral presentation at the 11th Workshop of the IOBC Global Working Group on Arthropod Mass Rearing and Quality Control AMRQC/IOBC International Meeting in Montreal, Canada in October 2007. A poster was presented at the Entomological Society of America international meetings in San Diego, CA in December 2007. A presentation was made on our findings through an invited talk at NC State University through the Entomology Department in 2007. 2) We have disseminated information through our company's (IDRR)international educational workshops given every year since 2004, a week long workshop with
slides, lectures, a handbook given to students, and hands-on learning activities for the students. 3) Our company also does "on-site" consultations and contracts to teach our techniques to others in government organizations, universities and private companies, including Dupont Pioneer, USDA-ARS Weslaco, Texas, where we have a cooperative agreement to develop an artificial diet for a wasp (Tetramesa romana), an invasive (Arundo donax) weed-eating insect. We also have contracts with the US Forest Service and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station to develop artificial diets for Mile-A-Minute weed destroying insect, Susajiscymnus tsuge. We work with our partners at NC State University and New Jersey Department of Agriculture Phillip Alampi Insects Lab helping to develop diets using the knowledge gained through the SBIR funding. ALL of the above projects are outgrowths of the learnings and technologies discussed above. Our ability to help our research partners solve their
problems with diet development is directly attributible to the funding of the SBIR project for butterflies.
PARTICIPANTS: INDIVIDUALS: Allen Cohen, director of Insect Diet and Rearing Research,LLC (IDRR)and was the principal investigator and project director. Jackie Cohen was research technician and project contact person. Allen Cohen, has been an international leader in his unique interdisciplinary approaches to insect rearing and diet development (as seen in his 2004 ground-breaking CRC Press book publication of Insect Diets: Science and Technology). Cohen's interdisciplinary approach and use of the scientific method coupled with the funding from the USDA SBIR, yielded results and technologies which has led to many partnerships and collaborations in divergent areas: genetics, food science, microbiology, entomology, physiology, microscopy, plant science, plant and animal pathology. PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS: North Carolina State University: (Departments Entomology, Food Science, Microbiology), Beneficial Insectary, Florida DPI, USDA ARS (Weslaco,TX, Tucson,AZ Bee Lab), Virginia Tech
University, CT Agricultural Experiment Station, USDA APHIS (Phoenix, AZ & Cape Cod, MA, Raleigh, NC), NJ Dept Agriculture, NCDA&CS(quarantine facility), USDA Forest Service, Array Express, Immunoreagents, NCSU Centennial Campus: Small Business &Tech. Dev. Center, NC State Biotechnology Consortium, CA Almond Board, MGK Pest Control,The Bug Company, Monsanto, DuPont-Pioneer, SC Johnson, Clearwater Butterflies, & most recently Morena (Bulgaria) COLLABORATORS and CONTACTS: Dr.Fred Hain, NC State University, Navdip Kaur, grad student , John Strider, (all Dept Entomology), Alan Bartlett, retired ARS, Chris Daubert, Dept Food Science NCSU, Fred Gould, genetics, NCSU, USDA ARS:John Adamczyk, John Goolsby, Florida DPI: Abby Fox, NCDA&CS: Kathleen Kidd, ArrayExpress:Lyn van Zyl, ImmunoReagents:Ann Black, Brad Heidinger, Beneficial Insectary: Sinthya Penn, USDA APHIS: Gorden Gordh, Ken Bloem, Ernie Miller, Greg Simmons, Cloti Tate, Vic Mastro, NCSU Centennial Campus: Small Business &Tech. Dev.
Center: Paul Ulanch, USDA Forest Service: Brad Onkin, Carole Cheah, Dick Reardon, Rusty Rhea, Virginia Tech Univ: Scott Salom, ARS Bee Lab: Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, Mona Chambers, Eric Ericson, Diana Sammataro, MGK: Robert Suranti, SC Johnson: Tom Jones, Monsanto:Ty Vaughn, Clearwater Butterflies:Gary Cousins, Dupont Pioneer:Lindsey Flexner, Tim Nowatzki, Morena in Bulgaria: Nikolai Dimitrov. INSECT DIET and REARING WORKSHOPS: Our yearly workshops specialize in hands-on teaching of cutting-edge diet and rearing research advances, to international groups of students. The workshops include Allen Cohen's book, a notebook consisting of updated material covered for that workshop (slides, etc.), and individualized teaching and interaction. The participants come from private companies, government agencies, colleges and universities, as well as non-profit organizations. Every workshop we've held, has had an international flavor, allowing the participants to interact and exchange information
and building far-reaching relationships.
TARGET AUDIENCES: TARGET AUDIENCES: Our INSECT DIET & REARING TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOPs provide the information gained in the SBIR projects. Workshop participants include a broad range of ethnically and economically diverse populations who represent a wide variety of private companies and government entities. Our own company is a good model, as it is a MINORITY OWNED (female) company. WE HAVE made several presentations at entomological meetings and departmental seminars. Populations in these audiences are diverse in gender, ethnicity, and national background. WE HOST students and professors, as well as representatives from businesses and government labs, in our laboratory and include a number of female and ethnic minorities. We MENTORED a graduate student from India this past year at NC State. We use topics, methodology, and the base of knowledge gained from the SBIR's to teach people. IDRR's WEBSITE (www.insectdiets.com ) targets audiences in every country with access to the internet.
The IDRR website posts information learned in our own Rand D as well as information learned from our SBIR's for communication with even 3rd world countries. EFFORTS: Our WORKSHOPS indeed all of our teaching, whether in workshops, individuals or other means, stresses the need to investigate using the inquiry/scientific method. We believe that the field can only advance more quickly by using a strict adherence to the quality of research and reporting. CLASSROOM teaching, both on the university and elementary levels is a part of what we regularly do. We have visited classrooms and been a part of student science day presentations. Numerous ELEMENTARY TEACHER WORKSHOPS have been conducted to help teachers understand and work with the scientific method. We have helped them integrate plant and insect interactions projects into their reading, writing and mathematics programs. DEPARTMENTAL seminars have been given. MENTORING: graduate students at North Carolina State. HANDS-ON research
experience, for learning the interdisciplinary approaches and methods advocated by Allen Cohen, is offered in our Centennial Campus Incubator lab location for students, professors, technicians and individuals from other private or governmental entities. POSTER presentation: Entomological Society of America. PUBLISHED papers (3 papers in preparation on information derived from the SBIR). Our WEBSITE information at www.insectdiets.com presents information on SBIR outcomes. Allen Cohen is member of EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH COMMITTEE of the North Carolina Entomological Society for presentation of information to local NC classrooms in elementary, junior high, and high school.
Impacts
The problems encountered with pathogens in the rearing of monarch butterflies,led to an increased awareness and research base of knowledge, throughout the SBIR project,about how pathogens develop. We found we had to develop a diet matrix which discouraged pathogen development, contributed to the larval health and made minerals and nutrients bio-available to the insect.Functional classes of diet ingredients were tested and ranked for their usefulness in the diet; this base of knowledge pointed the way to the discovery of new combinations of antioxidants, nutrients, extracts,and gel complexes to stabilize diets and nurture the monarchs,we now use and show others. The close observations of how the monarch larvae feed led to our research direction and discovery of how the larvae select only particular parts of leaves while leaving out other parts,leading us to develop techniques for processing leaves (grinding/sieving) leaving only the most nutritious plant parts for our
diets. From the basic and applied knowledge gained in this SBIR project we were granted a 2nd SBIR for diet development for weed-destroying insects.We use the technologies from the butterfly SBIR routinely with the USDA Forest Service, USDA ARS, the Connecticut Agricultural Research Experiment Station, and our New Jersey Department of Agriculture partners. The plant leaf processing technology has been applied to the 2nd SBIR and projects with invasive weed species Arundo donax, Mile-A-Minute, Purple Loosestrife and others.We work through contracts, cooperative agreements, grants and partnerships through site visits, with "hands-on" teaching and consultations. We developed a rearing system consisting of an artificial self-refreshing plant for insects. We developed gel, or hydrocolloid, combinations which best support newly hatched instars preventing them from drowning. We have developed extracts from the plants the insects feed on to include in the diets. We've developed a technology
to process the plant in order to preserve the parts we want to keep and include in the diet, and parts we want to reject within even a single leaf. We have been able to extend and apply all of those findings to many other plant eating insects, most importantly to the invasive weed-eating insects for biological control of invasive weeds. The advances in both basic and applied research allow us to transfer our findings to our partners. If it had not been for the funding from the USDA SBIR this technology transfer of so many advances could not have happened so quickly. Other outreach: IDRR (our company) WORKSHOPS, the BOOK Insect Diets: the Science and Technology by Allen C. Cohen (principal investigator) is given to our international participants, an ORAL PRESENTATION at the 11th Workshop of the IOBC Global Working Group on Arthropod Mass Rearing and Quality Control AMRQC/IOBC International Meeting in Montreal, Canada in October 2007, a POSTER was presented at the Entomological Society
of America international meetings in San Diego, CA in December 2007. A presentation was made on our research findings through an INVITED TALK at NC State University through the Entomology Department in 2007.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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