{"id":256941,"date":"2025-09-26T20:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T20:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256941\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T20:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T20:35:12","slug":"senator-durbin-touts-value-of-federal-research-funding-in-visit-to-university-of-illinois-bee-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256941\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Durbin touts value of federal research funding in visit to University of Illinois bee facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin visited the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Thursday to see the impact federal funding has had on research into the genetics of bees.<\/p>\n

Durbin brought $8 million to the school for the initiative over the last five years.<\/p>\n

The funding has helped U of I researchers sequence the DNA of 150 species of bees to better understand how to protect the pollinators<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Entomology professor Alexandra Harmon-Threatt said corn and soy don\u2019t need bee pollination to grow, but pumpkins, watermelons and strawberries do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have a diet without pollinators, but it\u2019d be very boring. There\u2019d be little color, there\u2019d actually be pretty low nutritional value. You\u2019d keep your meats, you\u2019d keep your carbs, but you wouldn\u2019t keep many of the micronutrients and vitamins that you need to live a healthy and productive life,\u201d Harmon-Threatt said.<\/p>\n

\"AIn addition to learning about the threats to bees through their DNA, U of I entomologist Adam Dolezal has been working with solar farms to grow pollinator-friendly plants under solar panels. Emily Hays\/Illinois Public Media<\/p>\n

U of I professor Adam Dolezal is also involved in the bee genome sequencing project. He said this project differs from others in its focus on getting high-quality DNA \u2013 better than the DNA that is starting to break down after a bee dies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to capture a bee and then instantly freeze it in liquid nitrogen \u2013 so make it super cold, super fast, to preserve as much of its DNA as possible in as complete strands as possible,\u201d Dolezal said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said one of the challenges is finding the more endangered species of bees that live in remote areas.<\/p>\n

The university researchers then send the DNA to a US Department of Agriculture sequencing facility to read the genetic makeup of the bee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dolezal said his lab has been looking into the genes that indicate whether a bee is particularly vulnerable to toxins, like honeybees are, or not. That helps them learn how different bees will respond to pesticides without having to conduct an experiment on a thousand bees.<\/p>\n

\"BlackThe University of Illinois Bee Research Facility opened a tub of baby bees for Sen. Dick Durbin\u2019s visit on Sept. 26, 2025. At an hour old, these bees cannot fly or sting yet. Emily Hays\/Illinois Public Media<\/p>\n

During his visit, Durbin said cuts to federal research grants<\/a> make it harder for America to address its current and future challenges.<\/p>\n

He said voters can decide whether they want that funding restored during the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we know what the values of this president will be. We know the things that are important to him and things he doesn\u2019t care about. He\u2019s cutting back dramatically in areas of research that I think really challenges us, whether it\u2019s basic medical research, agricultural research, across the board,\u201d Durbin said.<\/p>\n

Durbin\u00a0said Congress has control over spending, and if Democrats control the House or Senate, Republican lawmakers will have to compromise more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Senator Dick Durbin visited the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Thursday to see the impact federal funding has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[815,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-256941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115272517681462774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}