https://video.igem.org/videos/watch/25fba83b-a0d5-4c41-8c9c-78e23a3d414e Title: We don’t kill the hornet we catch. We recruit it. Description: The invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) is spreading across Europe, preying on honeybees and disrupting local ecosystems — and the real challenge is reaching the nest. Team iGEM VUB Brussels 2026 designed VUBzzz: a selective biocontrol that doesn’t kill the hornet it catches — it recruits it. An AI-powered camera trap identifies Vespa velutina and releases it carrying Beauveria bassiana, an entomopathogenic fungus clustered onto self-assembling A-ENA protein fibres engineered with a chitin-binding domain to grip the insect’s cuticle. The infected hornet flies home and spreads the fungus inside the nest — reaching the colony that conventional traps never can. In this presentation we walk through the biology, the protein engineering, our wet-lab results, and the open questions we’ve stayed honest about: whether the system can be made selective enough to stand next to a beehive. A project by Team iGEM VUB Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), 2026. Wiki | Official Page Thu, 29 Oct 2026 22:24:50 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://video.igem.org https://video.igem.org/client/assets/images/icons/icon-1500x1500.png https://video.igem.org/videos/watch/25fba83b-a0d5-4c41-8c9c-78e23a3d414e All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://video.igem.org/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.