Congratulations to Amro Zayed for being awarded funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for a research apiary to study honeybee behaviour, genetics and health. The funding will support Zayed by enhancing the capacity to experiment on honeybee colonies to support cutting-edge research on the genetics and health of these important pollinators. The research will lead to better understanding of honeybees and their role in supporting food security and sustainability.
Read more about this award: https://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2022/02/22/york-university-researchers-receive-research-infrastructure-funding/
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We’ve been busy!
Published on January 31 – Phenomic analysis of the honey bee pathogen-web and its dynamics on colony productivity, health and social immunity behaviors found that “colonies expressing high levels of three out of four of the social immunity behaviors studied (hygienic behavior, Varroa resistance behavior and grooming-related mite damage) were associated with low levels of pathogens/parasites, including viruses, Nosema spp., and mites.” This paper was in collaboration with Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, University of Lethbridge, University of Manitoba, Université Laval, and University of British Columbia! Read this open access paper
We also just got word that “Bees in the six: Determinants of bumblebee habitat quality in urban landscapes” is now in press in Ecology and Evolution! This paper is co-authored by current and past Zayed Lab members Ida Conflitti, Mohammad Arshad Imrit, Bandele Morrison and in collaboration with Dr. Sheila R. Colla!
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Very happy to share this new paper from the lab on the evolutionary origin and adaptive radiation of the honey bee Apis mellifera.
Katie Dogantzis (PhD student in the lab) led this research with the help of several other current and former Zayed lab members, including Tanushree Tiwari (PhD student) and Ida Conflitti and Alivia Dey (Current and former Research Associates, respectively). The study also included collaboration with a large team of researchers from the US, Europe, Africa and Asia.
You can read the open access paper here. [Press release, NewScientist Story]
Congrats Katie!
Big congrats to MSc Student KC Galang for winning the Entomological Society of Canada’s President Prize for best student talk in the area of Social Insects, for her talk titled “The molecular basis of altruistic and selfish aggression in honey bees”
Congrats KC!
Big congrats to current Zayed lab postdoc, Dr. Rodney Richardson, for landing an assistant professor position at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science!
Rodney will be transition to his new life as a Prof in October 2020. Well done Rodney!
I am very happy to announce that I have been elected as the President of the Entomological Society of Ontario – Canada’s oldest entomological society! I will serve as President Elect till November 2019, then as President till November 2020, then as Past President till November 2021.
More info on the society can be found on their latest newsletter
The entomological Society of Ontario’s executive; AGM 2018
The honey bee lab (www.yorku.ca/zayedlab) at York University’s Dept. of Biology (Toronto, Canada) has a position available for a postdoctoral fellow or research associate with demonstrable expertise in genomics and bioinformatics starting September 2018. We are particularly seeking individuals that have experiences in genome wide association studies.
The successful candidate will participate in the ‘BeeOMICs’ project – a large-scale association study of honey bees comprised of over one thousand colony ‘genomes’ and many colony-level phenotypes.
Qualified candidates are encouraged to submit a cover letter outlining their expertise, a CV, reprints of relevant papers, and contact information for 3 referees to honeybee@yorku.ca before August 25th. Compensation commensurate with experience.
Best,
Dr. Amro Zayed
York Research Chair in Genomics
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
York University
4700 Keele Street, Toronto
M3J 1P3, ON, Canada
Email: zayed[at]yorku.ca
http://www.yorku.ca/zayedlab
Just wanted to congratulate Dr. Matt Betti, who is leaving the lab to take up an Assistant Professor Position at Department of Math and Computer Science at Mount Allison University. Matt was a co-supervised NSERC postdoctoral fellow in my lab and Dr. Jane Heffernan at the Dept. of Math.
Here is a picture of Matt in action during a recent J. Club meeting. We will miss you Matt. Best of luck for the future!
Happy to report that Katie D aced her PhD Preliminary Exam today! Katie’s PhD research involves studying the evolutionary history of Apis, with a special emphasis on African and Africanized populations.
Congrats Katie! 
Very happy to announce that Dr. Matt Betti (PhD in Applied Mathematics from Western U) is joining YorkU’s faculty of science to work on mathematical aspects of bee health and evolution. Matt is co-advised by Professor Jane Heffernan (Dept. Math, YU Centre for disease modelling) and myself. Matt has done some fantastic work for his PhD on modelling infection in bee colonies and developed the bee health simulator, Bee++. We are really looking forward to collaborating on some exciting aspects of bee health and social evolution!
Math + Bees = Sweet Science 🙂
Dr. Matt Betti (Left) and Professor Jane Heffernan (Right)…
Also happy to announce a new cohort of Research At York Undergrads that joined us for the fall / winter term.
![New RAY students: [L to R] Sara, Dasha and AJ](http://zayedlab.apps01.yorku.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IMG_9760-e1505494372133-300x225.jpg)
New RAY students: [L to R] Sara, Dasha and AJ
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![New RAY students: [L to R] Sara, Dasha and AJ](http://zayedlab.apps01.yorku.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IMG_9760-e1505494372133.jpg)