Big Sky Times

Michelle Flenniken, a virologist and associate professor at Montana State University, will highlight results from her laboratory, including the discovery of new viruses and new honeybee antiviral defenses, in the next installment of the 2022-23 Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Series on March 21.

Flenniken is the co-director of MSU’s Pollinator Health Center and a faculty member in the College of Agriculture’s Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology. Her lecture, “A Serendipitous Scientific Path to Honeybee Virology,” is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Hager Auditorium at the Museum of the Rockies at 7 p.m., followed by a reception.

“Honeybees are important plant pollinators, including those that produce fruit, nut and vegetable crops,” said Flenniken. “Unfortunately, since 2008, U.S. honeybee colony losses have averaged about 38% annually, and virus infections contribute to those deaths.”

Montana is an important state for both beekeeping and honey production, she said. The state provides around 200,000 colonies for pollination services, including for almond crops in California, and is consistently in the top five honey producing states in the U.S. Flenniken added that her laboratory team is skilled in the molecular biology techniques needed to detect, quantify and discover bee viruses.

“The long-term goal of research in our lab is to minimize virus-associated losses of these important pollinators," she said."

Her current research group includes two graduate and two undergraduate researchers. Nine students have earned advanced degrees from their work in the lab, and in the last decade around 20 undergraduate students have been involved with Flenniken’s research, which is largely funded by peer-reviewed federal grants, she said.

Flenniken she first became interested in studying honeybees at the University of California while doing postdoctoral work, which coincided with the onset high colony losses in the U.S.

“I read about honeybee losses and got interested in this underexplored area which encompassed both of my interests, human health and environmental health,” she said. “Honeybee virology was also a research topic that I knew I could take to a land-grant university and carry out research to address a problem that's important to the world.”

Bees have a unique immune system, said Flenniken. While at MSU, she has helped to identify multiple previously unknown viruses affecting bees and has worked with research agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Montana Department of Agriculture. In 2017, she received a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award for early-career researchers.

In addition to research, Flenniken teaches courses on genetics and virology, and she hopes to inspire students to become curious and think about how to use what they learn to address important challenges. She wants to help instill confidence so that they can follow their own scientific aspirations, just as she did hers. 

“This lecture is a unique opportunity, and I hope there are young people in attendance who walk away from this lecture feeling like they can be scientists too,” she said. “I also want to convey the importance of honeybees and other pollinators, and give attendees more examples of the exciting science that's happening at Montana State.”

More information and the full lineup for the 2022-23 Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Series can be found at https://www.montana.edu/news/22305/. 

MSU Office of the Provost, provost@montana.edu or 406-994-4373 

Original source can be found here.