Team:Lethbridge HS/Introduction

Overview

The top 100 food crops produced provide 90% of the world’s nutrition. 70% of these crops are pollinated by bees. A phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has decimated honeybee colonies across the world, halving the number of productive colonies worldwide. One of the main factors hypothesized to contribute to CCD is the mite and viral vector Varroa destructor. While feeding on the bee’s hemolymph, Varroa destructor expels RNA viruses into the bee crippling colony’s strength. Current commercial methods to eradicate Varroa have seen a gradual development of resistance in treated populations. Using synthetic biology, we plan to target Varroa more effectively by directly delivering the miticide, oxalic acid into Varroa and utilizing RNA interference to eliminate Varroa populations within commercial hives.

Our Solution

The top 100 food crops produced provide 90% of the world’s nutrition. 70% of these crops are pollinated by bees. A phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has decimated honeybee colonies across the world, halving the number of productive colonies worldwide. One of the main factors hypothesized to contribute to CCD is the mite and viral vector Varroa destructor. While feeding on the bee’s hemolymph, Varroa destructor expels RNA viruses into the bee crippling colony’s strength. Current commercial methods to eradicate Varroa have seen a gradual development of resistance in treated populations. Using synthetic biology, we plan to target Varroa more effectively by directly delivering the miticide, oxalic acid into Varroa and utilizing RNA interference to eliminate Varroa populations within commercial hives.

Aspects of our project

Project

Human Practices

Notebook

Safety

Software

Achievements

Team

Collaborations

Thanks to our amazing sponsors

Who are we
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