Wessex One Health BBSRC scholarship: Paralysis in the hive: epidemiology and persistence of a neglected virus pathogen of honeybees (2025)

What you get

PhD studentships cover four years of UK or International PhD fees and a tax free maintenance allowance (currently £19,237 in 2024-5) plus some research costs.

Type of award

PhD scholarship

PhD project

Paralysis in the hive: epidemiology and persistence of a neglected virus pathogen of honeybees

Theme(s): Microbial Evolution and Drug Resistance; Understanding disease spread

Lead partner: University of Sussex 
Supervisor: Prof William Hughes, william.hughes@sussex.ac.uk

Joint partner: Animal and Plant Health Agency

Supervisor: Nigel Semmence, nigel.semmence@apha.gov.uk

Collaborative partner: The Pirbright Institute

Project Summary

Honeybees are of tremendous economic importance, providing essential pollination services for many crops in addition to honey and other apicultural products. However, the productivity of apiculture, and the agriculture that relies upon it, is increasingly threatened by a diversity of pathogens, ectoparasite vectors and other stressors. There is growing recognition of the importance of the complex interactions between the host, pathogens and stressors, including those that may individually have only sublethal effects. Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV) is a relatively neglected disease that is both an important problem for UK apiculture and an intriguing pathogen from a virology perspective. It is a single-strand, positive-sense RNA virus that has multiple modes of transmission, can replicate in multiple host species, causes multiple syndromes of symptoms, and often occurs at low prevalence but can cause rapid collapse of colonies and even whole apiaries. However, the virology and dynamics of CBPV are still poorly understood, which hinders the development of appropriate management strategies.

This exciting, cross-agency project will address this knowledge gap by investigating CBPV epidemiology and evolutionary dynamics at within-host, colony and population levels. Virus replication and mutation rates in different tissues and hosts will be examined to establish the significance of virus structure and how the virus persists within hosts. Laboratory experiments with controlled virus inoculations and qPCR will be used to examine the physiological basis for the different syndromes of symptoms and the dynamics of transmission between hosts. Field samples and syndromic surveillance will be incorporated into spatial and phylogenetic analyses to investigate virus patterns across the UK. The significance of interactions with other pathogens and stressors will be incorporated at all three levels. The results will both advance our fundamental understanding of host-virus dynamics and be of applied impact in informing the management of an important, neglected disease.

 The Wessex One Health programme brings together the expertise of our three university partners and four major UK institutes with national capability for working on high consequence pathogens, to provide a broad training and research experience for students, with the following highlights:

Eligibility

Who we are looking for

You will have the ambition, motivation and scientific curiosity to research new approaches to combatting infectious diseases in the themes of:

• Detection, prevention and intervention
• Microbial evolution and drug resistance
• Understanding disease spread
• Infection and cellular biology. 

You will have or expect to have an MSc, and/or a first or upper second honours degree in a relevant subject. We welcome applications from graduates of all universities, and from candidates already in work, or returning after a career break.

Note: Lab experience is desirable but not essential as all successful applicants will be trained in basic lab skills where applicable.

The Scholarships are open to both UK and International applicants but 70% of each cohort of students must be UK and some of the host laboratories have further nationality or residency requirements for their researchers, so bear this in mind when selecting your four project preferences.

In order to be eligible to apply for the necessary security clearance, applicants for projects with Dstl must be a UK national, currently resident in the UK, and have resided in the UK continuously for the past five year. Applicants for projects including laboratory work at APHA, UKHSA or Pirbright Institute must be currently resident in the UK and have at least three years continuous UK residency. Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) clearance is required prior to commencing work at all the above laboratories. Candidates need to ensure that they are eligible for security clearance. It is up to each person applying for a studentship to ensure they meet the residency criteria. Please contact the supervisor if you have any questions. 

Number of scholarships available

One for this project but 17 PhD studentships are available for October 2025 across the programme. 

Deadline

How to apply

Please apply by submitting an application form and completing our EDI survey.

Prospective students are asked to select up to four projects from those available and if invited for interview are strongly encouraged to contact prospective supervisors ahead of interview. 

• Submission deadline: Midnight, Friday 28 February 2025
• Shortlisting: by 10 March 2025
• Interviews: Online, week beginning 24th March 2025.

Contact us

For Sussex-specific enquiries contact pgr-scholarships@sussex.ac.uk

For information on thiso project, contact the supervisor: Prof William Hughes William.Hughes@sussex.ac.uk

For further information on the programme or application process, email WOH@surrey.ac.uk. 

Timetable

The timetable is as follows:

Deadline for online application:               February 28th 2025 - 23:59

Invitation to interview:                              By 10th March 2025

Interviews Online:                                    w/c March 24th 2025