Bee-HERO — Sacred Heart University’s Bee Health and Ecology Objective program — was awarded a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will allow six undergraduate students to research bee pathogens at the Centre for Honey Bee Research at the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences. Kevin Cullinan Alexander Besnilian pictured during his time researching bees in Sweden. The research seeks to respond to mites and illnesses causing bee colonies to collapse. Gotlan bees, native to an island off the east coast of Sweden, are naturally resistant to the Varroa destructor mite. The students’ research on the Gotlan bee could potentially help protect bee species worldwide. In the United States alone, bees pollinate up to 35% of the crops in the nation’s natural food cycle and are responsible for pollinating $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts, and vegetables.

“Being able to try to pinpoint the gene that makes the specific population of the Gotland bees resistant to this mite was really important because if we can pinpoint that gene, then we can try to incorporate it in other bee species so that they don’t die to the mite as easily,” said Alexander Besnilian, one of the first students from Sacred Heart to study in Sweden in 2023. Kevin Cullinan, who researched in Sweden through Bee-HERO last year, said his hands-on lab and research experience was inspiring. “I really appreciated the experience I got there because I learned how to value working for something over time like each day we go into the lab and we have our goals, and we’re working towards something bigger,” Cullinan said.

The grant will send three cohorts of six students to Sweden over the course of four years.