3-Part Video Series about Honey Bee Research from MSU

PAm Scientific Advisor
​Dr. Michelle Flenniken recently released a 3-part video series for learners and beekeepers of all ages.  Michelle made these videos as part of outreach/education efforts associated with her NSF CAREER grant. She collaborated with Montana State’s University Communications Visual Media Staff to make two additional videos for a three-part video series about (1) Honey Bee Research at MSU, (2) Honey Bee Pathogens, and (3) Honey Bee Pathogen Detection.  ​​

​You can view them by clicking on links on Montana State University’s Pollinator Health Center Resources page (http://www.montana.edu/pollinators/resources.html) or using the following links  
Youtube:  
Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAlk_L_IMLY 
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjueIScI9G4 
Video 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGpbb87wpOA&feature=youtu.be 
  
Vimeo: 
Video 1: https://vimeo.com/173813936 
Video 2: https://vimeo.com/289183503 
Video 3: https://vimeo.com/289188659 
 
Michelle hopes you enjoy the videos and share them with anyone you think may be interested.   

 Dr. Michelle Flenniken is an Assistant Professor in the Plant Sciences Department at Montana State University, where she investigates honey bee host-pathogen interactions. She is also Co-Director of Montana State University's Pollinator Health Center and the recent recipient of a prestigious NSF CAREER award. 

Michelle received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Iowa and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana before obtaining her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Montana State University. She did postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco, with Dr. Raul Andino (and RNA virologist) and collaborated on a honey bee colony monitoring project with Dr. Joe DeRisi, who received funding from PAm in 2008. When she emailed Eric Mussen (small world!) about a research project on RNAi in honey bees, it led to a UC-Davis / Haagen Daz sponsored fellowship that supported her initial independent research on honey bee viruses and the mechanisms of honey bee antiviral defense.  In parallel, with Dr. DeRisi and a graduate student in the DeRisi lab (C. Runckel) and Brett Adee (Adee Honey Farms),  this team produced one of the first published longitudinal studies of commercial bee colony pathogen prevalence and abundance.  ​

Michelle has been focused on honey bee research ever since. She started her own laboratory at MSU in June 2012 and received support from PAm to support her research on the impact of honey bee viruses on bee health (in general) and to examine potential synergistic effects of viral infections and agrochemical exposure. Shortly thereafter Laura Brutscher, a graduate student in the Flenniken Lab, received the PAm-Costco PhD Fellowship in Honey Bee Biology. Dr. Laura Brutscher is now continuing honey bee research in Dr. Elina Lastron Nino’s lab at UC-Davis.  
The grants from PAm were critical in forming and shaping Michelle’s successful bee lab and projects. 

​Michelle is a great example of how Project Apis m. leverages donated resources to increase the problem-solving assets for the beekeeping industry, not just with specific projects but also by engaging and supporting developing or ‘non-bee’ scientists who can bring their focus and expertise to our issues. By providing the initial ‘start-up’ funding required for research projects to gain momentum in order to compete for higher dollar federally funded grants, which are needed to address complex biological questions and develop real solutions for beekeepers down the road.

In addition to support from Project Apis m., the Flenniken Lab has received support from by the National Science Foundation (both NSF Career Award from the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems and EPSCoR funds), the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (USDA-NIFA-AFRI) Program, Montana Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, Hatch Multistate Funding (NC-1173), and received some initial lab ‘start up’ support from the National Institutes of Health IDeA Program COBRE grant GM110732, the Montana State Beekeepers Association, Montana State University, and the Montana State University Agricultural Experiment Station. 
  
With an expertise in microbiology, genetics, and virology, Michelle is an excellent addition to our cadre of Science Advisors.