Bees are vital to global food security and biodiversity.
On pages 111-127 of this issue (Volume 44, Issue I, Jan 2026), Vincent A. Ricigliano , Julia D. Fine , and Sascha C.T. Nicklisch discuss biotechnological solutions for improving bee health and mitigating bee population decline.
Cover image from Justine Rideout, VI4 Artist-in-Residence Program.
Find the full issue here!
An enriching discussion on honey bee health research took place at the symposium “From the Bench to the Field: Emerging Technologies to Advance Honey Bee Health” part of the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, OR. The symposium was co-organized by Dr. Nicklisch, Dr. Fine, and Dr. Ricigliano; and hosted presentations from:
No winners, no losers, just fun.
The Nicklisch lab spending an afternoon at the worlds largest corn maze. Talk about a team building exercise, we got lost, we figured it out, and we thrived!
Three AgChem PhD students received the 2025-2026 Jastro-Shields fellowship award for their research proposals on:
Angela (left)- “Tracing Pesticide Flow in Honey Bee Colonies Using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS): Mapping Physical and Biological Hotspots”
Eli (middle)– “Mechanisms of Cellular Uptake and Toxicity of Inhaled Pollutant-Absorbed Nanoplastics”
Zeke (right)– “Determining the Extent to Which Microplastics have Infiltrated a Protected Marine Ecosystem”
Spyros Tamvakopoulos graduated with a Master of Science from the Forensic Science Graduate Group. During his time at UCD Spyros worked on fingerprint detection and visualization in crime scenes.
All the best wishes in his future endeavors for M.S. Spyros Tamvakopoulos!
In-House and Collaborative Research Updates – thanks to all our collaborators. We invite you to take a look at the publications!
Eli received the Comparative Lung Biology and Medicine Training Grant (T32) from the National Institutes of Health. His proposal on “Mechanisms of Biodistribution and Toxicity of Inhaled Pollutant-Absorbed Nanoplastics (PANs)” was funded to conduct research in collaboration with the Carney lab for a year.
