Me to We: Searching for the Genetic Roots of Social Life
Location:
The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor ME
The Birkenmeirer Lecture Series
The Robinson lab studies the genetics and evolution of behavior in the honey bee, Apis mellifera.
Please contact the event organizer for more information
Sep
01
2017
About
The Robinson lab's remarkable finding that gene expression in the honey bee brain can be regulated by social factors add greatly to our understanding of the roots of behavior and provide important new insights into the age old question of “nature verses nurture”. In 2006, a group led by Robinson sequenced the honey bee genome thereby opening the way for comparative genomic and molecular studies of behavior in other species. Robinson has also made significant contributions to the study of honey bee health issues, especially colony collapse disorder. In February 2017 he and Harris Lewin became co-organizers of the Earth Biogenome Project whose ambitious goal it is to sequence all eukaryotic species on Earth and thereby create the ultimate “Tree of Life”.