In 2021, UNSW launches NanoSoils Bio a startup that aimed to explore how the principles of nanoparticle designs, originally developed to fight cancer, can be applied in agriculture.
“Being part of a university fosters collaboration among people from all backgrounds, creating an environment where new ideas can thrive.”
With these findings, they aim to create cheap nano-agrochemicals based on nano-medicine insights.
Scientist, Dr Cong Vu is applying nanomedicine – used to treat cancer – in a project to make greener agrichemicals more affordable.
“I realised, why don’t we use the nanoparticles here to encapsulate pesticides for farmers?” said Vu.
Like cancer drugs, agrichemicals, or pesticides, are powerful drugs that if released into the wrong place, can have harmful consequences.
“We don’t want to overdose, we don’t want the residue, but at the same time, we need the chemical to reach and treat the problem.”
Cancer treatment has similar properties to a pesticide.
Dr Vu says the end goal of this project is to improve pesticide and fungicide delivery, promoting cleaner, more sustainable agriculture.
“When pesticides are sprayed, more than 90 per cent of the chemical leaks into the environment,” Dr Vu explains.
In addition to pesticides, NanoSoils is working on another project to create silica nanoparticles that help make cotton crops more resilient to drought.
In a recently published article Ve and his former supervisor professor Justin Gooding, they emphasise the importance of this study.
The article outlines how design principles from nanomedicine – such as alterations to the size, surface, and material of nanoparticles could be applied to target deliver agrochemicals in plants.
“We’ve demonstrated that we can get nanoparticles of different shapes to target diseased cells more effectively than healthy ones,” said Gooding.
“For example, rod-shaped particles tend to be more successful at translocating through cells than spherical ones,” he explains.