The Bees’ Disease: How Do Bees Get Sick?

Nina Sokolov, Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley

Did you know that there are over 20,000 species of bees worldwide? The European honey bee is just one species that faces staggering winter losses due to a variety of stressors, including infectious diseases. Viruses that were once thought to be honey bee specific however, are now being found in many other bee species, with unknown impacts on their populations. This talk will focus on an overview of the viruses that make bees sick, what bee sickness looks like, why it is hard to diagnose, and how flowers are involved.

Building a Stronger Postman: How to Improve RNA Messengers

Teena Bajaj, Department of Bioengineering, UC Berkeley

While DNA is the king of the cell, proteins are its major workforce. But how does the workforce get instructions from the king? A postman! In our cells, the postman is called messenger RNA, or mRNA, carrying information from DNA to proteins. But mRNA tends to be unstable and delicate. This talk will describe a process scientists are using to make mRNA stronger and how this improvement can help treat genetic diseases.