North Carolina State University

Steven A Lommel

Richard H Guenther

Stefan Franzen

Julie A Willoughby

Timmy L Sit

LiNa Loo

A first aspect of the invention is an agricultural composition comprising nanoparticles, an agrochemical active ingredient in the nanoparticles, and optionally (but in some embodiments preferably) a carrier for the nanoparticles. In some embodiments, the nanoparticles are viral particles or capsids, particularly plant viral particles or capsids. In some embodiments, the carrier comprises an inert or biodegradable carrier (e.g., a solid carrier) to which the nanoparticles are bound or in which the nanoparticles are suspended. In some embodiments, the carrier comprises inert or biodegradable polymer fibers.

Nanotechnology system for agricultural applications

This invention is a process for the manufacture of a plant viral capsid to be used for the targeted delivery of therapeutics to diseased cells. The process uses a plant virus as the starting material. The choice of the plant virus overcomes a problem in the manufacture of a uniform starting material. The final product has an advantage over other plant virus-based delivery systems in that the plant virus selected has a natural structure that is resistant to breakdown during the delivery process. This system takes advantage of the reversible divalent cation switch that this capsid employs to assemble and disassemble.

Viral nanoparticle cell-targeted delivery platform

A method of activating transcription of an RNA of interest in a cell (e.g., a dicot plant cell) includes the steps of: (a) providing a host cell containing a heterologous construct, the heterologous construct comprising an RNA virus subgenomic promoter operatively associated with a heterologous RNA of interest, wherein the promoter does not initiate transcription of the heterologous RNA in the absence of a corresponding RNA virus trans-activating RNA segment, and wherein the RNA virus trans-activating RNA segment is absent from the host cell; and then (b) introducing a trans-activating nucleic acid segment into the host cell so that transcription of the heterologous RNA is initiated. The trans-activating segment may be introduced into the cell by any suitable means, such as by infecting the cell with a virus, which virus expresses the trans-activating RNA.

Growing community of inventors

Cary, NC, United States of America

Steven A Lommel