Dr. Chakrabarti is currently working as a post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Ramesh Sagili’s Honey Bee Lab at Oregon State University. Her chief focus lies in improving honey bee health by understanding honey bee nutrition and deciphering the effects of pesticides on pollinators. At the Sagili Honey Bee Lab, she is currently studying the key nutrients essential for improving honey bee health. She employs various techniques of molecular ecology, neuroethology, insect physiology, ecotoxicology and apicultural practices to address her research questions. She earned her PhD from the Department of Zoology and Centre for Pollination Studies at the University of Calcutta in India, where she studied the effects of pesticides on native wild Indian honey bees. She was the recipient of the prestigious Royal Society Newton International Fellowship. She also pursued research at the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University, UK, being awarded the prominent Newton Bhaba PhD Placement Fellowship. She has published several peer reviewed scientific journals, books chapters and extension articles. Apart from mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, she also interacts at daylong seminars with schoolchildren to teach honey bee biology and spread environmental and pollinator awareness.

Listen in to learn the importance of sterols in honeybee health, why they are so important, and the research Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti has done on them.

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“[Sterols] are building blocks of cellular membranes. That is why we are trying to focus on them, because without these sterols, you would basically have a dead bee.” – Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti

Show Notes:

• The key nutrients that are needed to make a bee
• Why sterols are so important for bee nutrition, and where they get it from
• How sterols are a honeybee’s first line of defense against pests and parasites
• What intrigued Priyadarshini about sterols and the role they play with bees
• How Priyadarshini tested the effects of sterols and the research it was based on
• The results of her study and what beekeepers can learn from it
• What sterols were found in all different kinds of bee food
• What Priyadarshini and her team are hoping to learn by continuing their study into metabolites

“It’s not just one nutrient, it’s a combination of various factors. We are focusing on phytosterols for now, and we are hoping to also look at the various factors that go into it.” – Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti

Links Mentioned:

• Learn more about the OSU Apiculture lab
• Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti’s favorite bee resources:
  • Book: Honey Bee Democracy (Tom Seeley, 2010)
  • Tool: Beevac
  • Bee: Apis dorsata
• Connect with Dr. Chakrabarti via her website