Together with the newly formed team, we started the journey of finding the right topic. As a Maastricht team we wanted to help solve a prevalent issue in The Netherlands, this was when we were introduced to the Oak Processionary Caterpillars. This invasive little critter strips trees bare to their bark making the oaks vulnerable to harsh environmental conditions. In addition, the OPC poses a serious health risk to both humans and other animals as a result of their allergenic bristles. Rashes, severe itching, eye complaints and respiratory issues like asthma are common symptoms evoked by the allergenic protein thaumetopoein, which triggers inflammatory responses. In the most serious cases, bristles even have to be removed surgically from the eyes! 

As a consequence of the soft winters and drought that climate change brings along, the OPC returns with vengeance yearly. This global issue seems to be the OPC’s best friend as it allowed the species to expand its territory from its native region in Southern Europe towards all European countries and even parts of the Middle-East. It’s quite the journey, isn’t it? Over the years, the invasive species has become a major local problem in The Netherlands since more than 100.000 people were a victim of the caterpillar in 2019. Municipalities annually have a hard time managing the problem and this is how we came into contact with Jules Sondeijker who coordinates the control of the OPC in the Dutch province Limburg and is connected to the municipality of Sittard-Geleen. Our aim is to develop an insecticide that combats the OPC in the most environmentally friendly way. These current control measures are non-specific, meaning they are dangerous for the caterpillar as well as other species that reside in the same niche. Consequent to this, biodiversity in the area is highly affected enabling the invasive caterpillar to grow in population due to a lack of natural predators. This will result in an imbalance in the population causing a pest.

We started on this endeavor by dividing up into subgroups to cover all the necessary aspects of the project. This included human practices, public relations (eg. YouTube and social media), dry lab, wet lab, wiki, collaborations and funding. This of course came with meetings twice a week throughout the university educational period and summer to manage all the subgroups and workload.

We were successful in raising funds for the project, including receiving the funding reward from Restore & Revive. We created a ‘masterplan’ for human practices, which includes a scientific journal with 42 articles. We managed to put out over 20 videos on our youtube channel (Geneducation), including collaborations with 7 different teams! The dry lab team worked continuously to create models, research the topic and create appropriate lab procedures so the wet lab team could enter the lab without a problem. This of course was inevitable, and problems did occur, like when would we actually be able to enter the lab? How many people could enter the lab?  We figured it all out in the end.

Our developed product, called OakShield, is a genetically engineered bacterial pesticide highly specific for the OPC. Our aim is for this biological pesticide to target specific and essential sequences in the caterpillar to reduce their growing population and avoid harming other species. For this we take advantage of the cellular mechanism of RNA interference, where specifically designed siRNAi sequences, produced by our bacteria, would target specific gene sequences found only in the OPC genome. By silencing these genes it prevents the formation of essential proteins needed for the OPC survival, preventing the spread of the species.