Dr. Nicholas Oberlies (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received a new grant from the USDA Agricultural Research Service for the project “Harnessing fungal natural products for scalable and sustainable honey bee therapeutics.” The Oberlies lab is a collaborator on this USDA ARS project, which is funded by Project Apis m., a nonprofit that funds honey-bee research in the U.S. and Canada.
Learn more about the USDA project from the abstract, below.
Abstract: Our primary objective is to screen a library of fungal extracts for antiviral activities and their relative safety in honeybees. Secondarily, we will test a select number of extracts for miticidal activity and relative safety in bees. Using established tools and methods from the field of natural products research, we will extract culture biomass from a curated library of fungal isolates. Using feeding bioassays and virus-challenged honeybees, we will test whole fungal extracts for their antiviral potential and toxicity in bees. Using bioassays with bees and mites, we will test the miticidal potential of select fungal extracts delivered by drench application. Finally, we will scale the most promising treatment for a proof-of-concept colony-level application.
