A natural product chemist and biochemist at Acadia University is breaking new ground with research focused on the discovery of bioactive natural products for pest management and crop protection.

Dr. Nicoletta Faraone hopes to apply these products in the food and health industry. She’s already established several industrial collaborations for development of new naturally-occurring products and is assisting various companies with the product registration process required by the Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency of Health Canada.

“All these projects are supervised and directed in collaboration with Dr. Kirk Hillier, a professor in the biology department of Acadia,” Faraone said.

And Dr. Faraone’s research is having an impact across Nova Scotia and beyond. She began collaborating with the Windsor, N.S. company, Heritage Memorials Ltd., in 2017 to develop a novel bio-pesticide and natural pest repellant based on granite rock dust.

“Rock dust is the by-product of stone cutting,” Faraone said.

Learn more. Read the full article in the Journal Pioneer.