REU: Honey Bee Neurobiology and Behavior Program

该奖项为伊利诺伊大学继续成功开展REU项目提供支持。夏季研究项目将集中在蜜蜂的行为和神经解剖学上。学生将有机会将引人注目的实地工作与现代神经解剖学技术相结合。学生培训将是一个三方面的过程。首先，将讲授昆虫神经系统的结构和功能；昆虫变态和神经发育的激素调控以及动物行为的实验研究。其次，学生将接受安全处理蜂群和观察蜜蜂行为的实践培训，并有充足的机会实践这些新技能。第三，学生将接受实验室指导，学习蜜蜂神经系统的光学显微研究的组织学技术，包括立体学的许多方面。学生将被分成两组，每组3人。然后，这些团队将开展一个研究项目，在已知年龄和行为状态的蜜蜂中研究大脑组织、神经细胞数量、基因表达或激素反应等方面。该项目的目标是向已经对行为生物学感兴趣的学生介绍社会性昆虫作为研究复杂行为（包括学习和记忆）的神经生物学模型的价值。该项目是伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校昆虫学系和神经科学项目两个实验室正在进行的合作的延伸。它将设在伊利诺伊大学蜜蜂研究机构和昆虫学系的合作项目实验室。这种不同寻常的现场和实验室研究环境的结合，加上合作pi不同但互补的背景，将为本科生提供丰富的夏季研究经验。目前提出的项目反映了过去REU网站项目围绕同一主题（1992年夏季提供）的成功，新的重点是研究团队合作，作为帮助学生完成有意义的研究项目的一种手段。＊＊＊

9322202 Fahrbach This award provides support to the University of Illinois to continue a successful REU program. Summer research programs will be focused on the behavior and neuroanatomy of honey bees. Students will have the opportunity to combine compelling fieldwork with modern neuroanatomical techniques. Student training will be a three-fold process. First, lectures will be given on the structure and function of the insect nervous system; the hormonal regulation of insect metamorphosis and neural development; and the experimental study of animal behavior. Second, students will receive practical training in the safe handling of colonies of honey bees and in observation of honey bee behavior, with ample opportunity provided to practice these new skills. Third, students will receive laboratory instruction in histological techniques for the light microscopic study of the honey bee nervous system, including many aspects of stereology. Students will then be divided into two teams of three students each. These teams will then carry out a research project in which an aspect of brain organization, nerve cell number, gene expression, or hormonal responsiveness, etc. is studied in bees of known age and behavioral status. The goal of this project is to introduce students who already have an interest in behavioral biology to the value of social insects as models for the study of the neurobiology of complex behavior, including learning and memory. This project represents an extension of an ongoing collaboration between two laboratories in the Department of Entomology and the Neuroscience Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It will be based in the University of Illinois Bee Research Facility and in the co-PIs laboratories in the Department of Entomology. This unusual combination of field and laboratory research environments coupled with the different but complementary backgrounds of the co-PIs will provide undergraduates with a rich summer research experience. The program currently proposed reflects the success of a past REU Site program centered around the same theme (offered Summer 1992), with a new emphasis on research teamwork as a means of helping students complete meaningful research projects. ***