email: ccantrell@ars.usda.gov

Charles L. Cantrell conducts research aimed at the discovery and development of natural product based pesticides from natural sources.  Pesticide targets include insects such as the Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus), yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), and fire ants (Solenopsis sp.) as well as crop pathogenic fungi (Colletotrichum sp., Fusarium sp., and Botrytis sp.), freshwater phytoplankton (Oscillatoria sp.) and herbicide target screens.  Natural product sources include extracts from plants, fungi, bacteria, and marine animals while natural compounds are purified using a systematic “bioassay-guided” approach to arrive at the compounds responsible for the desired biological activity.  Biological activity is typically enhanced using molecular modeling and synthetic organic chemistry techniques. 

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