Cutting-Edge Lab To Help Save Bees
February 23, 2010 Project Apis is bringing in a heavy hitter to help solve a malady that has been plaguing bees, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Project Apis m (PAm), a non-profit organization focused on finding practical solutions to beekeepers’ challenges by supporting practical, results-oriented in-field research, has enlisted the services of the DeRisi Lab.
Located at the University of California-San Francisco, the DeRisi Lab is famous for its cutting edge technology that discovered the human SARS virus and also the Avian Bonavirus that was mysteriously killing parrots around the world. PAm has provided funding for the DeRisi Lab to systematically collect weekly samples from a large migratory beekeeping operation so as to characterize normal honey bee microbial flora.
Meanwhile, Pam’s funding allowed the lab to produce a virus and microbe micro array, or BeeChip, with 2000 pathogen-detection sites. Unknown pathogens are being ultra-deep sequenced for identification. Results are expected by year-end.
Joseph DeRisi is a MacArthur Fellow – or as some call it, the “genius” grant – and preeminent molecular biologist at UCSF’s Mission Bay Campus. The DeRisi Lab will also fully sequence the Nosemaapis and the N. ceranae genomes, allowing beekeepers to discover their vulnerabilities and eventual treatments.
