diff --git a/SciGraph-services/src/main/java/io/scigraph/services/resources/CypherUtilService.java b/SciGraph-services/src/main/java/io/scigraph/services/resources/CypherUtilService.java
index 55d00958..d11504e5 100644
--- a/SciGraph-services/src/main/java/io/scigraph/services/resources/CypherUtilService.java
+++ b/SciGraph-services/src/main/java/io/scigraph/services/resources/CypherUtilService.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.logging.Logger;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
@@ -63,6 +64,8 @@
 @Produces({MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN})
 public class CypherUtilService extends BaseResource {
 
+  private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(CypherUtilService.class.getName());
+
   final private CypherUtil cypherUtil;
   final private GraphDatabaseService graphDb;
   final private CurieUtil curieUtil;
@@ -131,6 +134,10 @@ public Response execute(
       } else {
           return Response.ok(cypherUtil.execute(replacedStartCurie).resultAsString()).cacheControl(null).build();
       }
+    } catch (QueryExecutionException e) {
+      String errorMsg = "QueryExecutionException: " + e.getMessage();
+      logger.warning(errorMsg);
+      return Response.status(400).entity(errorMsg).build();
     } catch (TransactionTerminatedException e) {
         return Response.ok("The query execution exceeds dbms.transaction.timeout configuration. " +
                            "Consider using the neo4j shell instead of this service.").build();