Bees were humanity’s most important biotechnological allies long before biotechnology became a scientific discipline. Through pollination, they helped sustain agriculture, increase crop yields, and support the development of human civilizations, while providing valuable products such as honey and therapuetics. Today, honey bee populations face mounting threats largely driven by human activities, and biotechnology is becoming a tool that helps us repay that debt by understanding, protecting, and restoring bee health.
From 1 to 6 June 2026, the course Hands-on Molecular Approaches for Honey Bee Research in Health and Disease, coordinated by Dr. Karina Antunez, brought together 17 participants from across Latin America at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable (IIBCE) in Montevideo, Uruguay to address one of the most pressing challenges facing agriculture and biodiversity: the decline of honey bee populations due to interacting stressors such as pathogens, pesticides, nutritional stress, and environmental change. Participants received intensive theoretical and practical instruction in molecular biology and bioinformatics techniques for studying honey bee health. Topics ranged from PCR and qPCR-based pathogen detection to next-generation sequencing, microbiomics, viromics, genomics, and transcriptomics.
A distinguished international faculty of 11 experts from Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Germany, and Japan guided participants through lectures, laboratory sessions, and data analysis workshops. The hands-on nature of the course allowed students to perform DNA and RNA extraction, pathogen detection, microbiome analyses, and bioinformatics workflows using real datasets, while also presenting their own research projects and receiving feedback from peers and specialists.
By combining cutting-edge biotechnology with a commitment to pollinator conservation, this course exemplified how science can help protect one of humanity’s oldest and most valuable allies and one of the pillars of healthy ecosystems.
