Gene Robinson

The New York Times (April 19) – Variations in how mammals function may explain why most species are promiscuous, why a few are monogamous – and why some, like humans, are somewhere in between. “We can go from the bottom up and build our knowledge base, and then ask questions about human biology,” says Gene Robinson, a biologist at Illinois who was not involved in a pioneering study published Wednesday.

Gene E. Robinson is the Director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. He holds a Swanlund Chair at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has been since 1989.

Even as larvae, honey bees are tuned in to the social culture of the hive, becoming more or less aggressive depending on who raises them, researchers report in the journal Scientific Reports.

Scientists attached radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to hundreds of individual honey bees and tracked them for several weeks. The effort yielded two discoveries: Some foraging bees are much busier than others; and if those busy bees disappear, others will take their place.

The findings are reported in the journal Animal Behaviour, and featured in a New York Times ScienceTake video.

Scientists track gene activity when honey bees do and don't eat honey

Many beekeepers feed their honey bees sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup when times are lean inside the hive. This practice has come under scrutiny, however, in response to colony collapse disorder, the massive -- and as yet not fully explained -- annual die-off of honey bees in the U.S. and Europe. Some suspect that inadequate nutrition plays a role in honey bee declines.

Gene Robinson featured in latest “Science Nation” video by NSF

Illinois Bringing Next-Gen Genomics Computing to India, as Featured in Magazine Current Science

IGB Director Gene Robinson, with Professor of Engineering Ravishankar K. Iyer, recently spoke in Bangalore, India on a next-generation computing project to allow the analysis of large amounts of genomic sequence data, as reported in the September 25 issue of Current Science.

"The genomic data is doubling every 1.5 years," says Robinson. "The current methods are unable to handle large datasets. Therefore, a new technology framework is required."

IGB Director Featured in Cover Article in Pacific Standard Magazine

IGB Director Gene Robinson is featured in a recent Pacific Standard article by David Dobbs, entitled "The Social Life of Genes."

Excerpt:

IGB Director Gives Congressional Testimony on Value of Brain and Behavior Research

IGB Director Gene Robinson has been elected to the National Advisory Mental Health Council (NAMHC) of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The NAMHC advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Director, National Institutes of Health; and the Director, National Institute of Mental Health, on all policies and activities relating to the conduct and support of mental health research, research training, and other programs of the Institute.