Heather Llewellyn, biology graduate assistant

Heather Llewellyn earned her undergraduate degree in biology from Lock Haven University. She received clinical training in medical laboratory science at Williamsport Regional Medical Center and is employed in the laboratory at Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg.

Heather’s thesis research examines “The Acute Sub-lethal Effects of the Neonicotinoid Pesticide Imidacloprid on the Honey Bee Transcriptome.”

Honeybees are important pollinators of a wide variety of crops and are experiencing global declines. The losses of honey bee populations have been linked to a disorder known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In this phenomenon, worker bees disappear from the colony, leaving the brood unattended.

While there is no single cause of CCD, sublethal doses of pesticides cause physiological and behavioral changes that adversely affect hive health. Heather’s research aims to determine how gene expression is altered in bees at doses of imidacloprid that cause these sublethal stress responses. This work has the potential to increase our understanding of the mechanisms underlying Colony Collapse Disorder.

The grant that have been applied toward this research was the Research and Scholarship Grant. Cindy Surmacz is Heather’s thesis advisor. John Hranitz, William Schwindinger and Abby Hare-Harris serve on her thesis committittee.