BAHS faculty and students attend SICB annual meeting
BAHS students Rachel Nenstiel (BS Biology, 3 + 2 MS in Biology) and Casey Donahoe (BS Biology, Pre-medical Sciences) are currently presenting a virtual poster at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB). Originally scheduled in-person for January 3-7 in Washington DC, the virtual SICB meeting now extends through the end of February. Casey and Rachel's poster "Assessing sublethal stress in honeybees exposed to "bee-friendly" neonicotinoid and pyrethroid pesticides" is uploaded to the meeting platform, along with a 3 minute video that they have prepared. They will have the opportunity to interact with scientists directly in a live session in February and virtually through a chat function. Their work examines the motor responses and levels of oxidative stress in bees exposed to pesticides labeled as "bee-friendly" compared to imidacloprid, the most widely used neonicotinoid pesticide. This work is significant since honeybee populations are declining worldwide, a phenomenon attributed to pesticides, along with factors such as pathogens, and nutritional stress. Drs. John Hranitz and Cindy Surmacz are mentors and co-authors. Support for participating in the SICB conference was provided by the Office of Sponsored Research and the Faculty Professional Development Fund.