The ROC team is participating in the new ANR project “BeeCare”. The project has a total budget of €639,149 and a duration of 42 months. The partners involved in this project are CEDRIC/Cnam, coordinated by Samia Bouzefrane (ROC team), with Olivier Pons (SYS) and Lounis Zerioul (Laetitia); CRIL/CNRS, represented by Karim Taba and his team; CRBE/University of Toulouse, represented by Angélique Vetillard and her team; and Penn State University (USA), represented by Youakim Badr and his team, with their participation funded independently.
Title (French): Découverte pilotée par l’IA pour une résistance accrue au Varroa chez les abeilles
Abstract:
Bees play a crucial role in pollination, ensuring biodiversity and food production. However, their populations are increasingly fragilized due to various environmental stressors caused by human activities and the introduction of new parasites such as Varroa destructor, which weaken colonies and spreads viruses. BeeCare is a multidisciplinary project that combines artificial intelligence (AI), behavioural analyses and biomolecular research to discover the impact of Varroa infestation on bees, in relation to their pollen resources and immune responses. The duality of AI techniques and invitro biological exams makes possible to investigate the larval development and variations in the hemolymph’s metabolome and proteome and identify molecules that enhance bees’ tolerance to this parasite, with the goal of developing targeted dietary supplements. To achieve this goal, BeeCare will (i) design smart beehives equipped with IoT sensors to collect multimodal data on colony health, such as bee activities, images of carried pollens and consumption, Varroa infestation levels so that to build predictive models and draw insights, (ii) refine immunological exams in laboratory studies by leveraging unsupervised machine learning to discover hidden patterns and correlations, (iii) discover tailored dietary supplements from biological research outcomes that strengthen bees’ resistance to Varroa destructor and approve the discovery results by augmenting field experimental data with AI explainability and synthetic data, (iv) develop an AI-based monitoring device that embeds AI algorithms and sensors to help beekeepers manage infestations more effectively through the recommendation of tailored dietary supplements to preserve the beehives ecosystems. BeeCare thus aims to combine advances in artificial intelligence and biomolecular research for scientific discovery and provide innovative solutions for the fight against Varroa destructor.
