Biotech Center Grant Helps Bees
Honeybees, whose pollination activities are crucial for agriculture in North Carolina and globally, have been dwindling. Scientists have been struggling to understand why it's happening and what can be done about it.
But a $75,000 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center is creating a healthy new buzz in research labs at two Piedmont Triad universities.
The Biotechnology Research Grant is helping to support the work of scientists Olav Rueppell, Ph.D., associate professor of biology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and Susan Fahrbach, Ph.D., Reynolds Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at Wake Forest University.
They're collaborating on different aspects of developing a simple genetic test kit that beekeepers can use to find problems in their hives.
Despite the threat to the world's food and fiber production from an increasing bee die-off, few experimental tools exist for studying bee health.
The North Carolina scientists are establishing a permanent set of stem cell cultures from honeybee intestines that researchers can subsequently use to study honeybee diseases, genetics, aging and environmental toxins, in order to maintain honeybee health.