Guy Bloch
Prof. Guy Bloch
Born (1962-05-23) May 23, 1962
NationalityIsraeli
Alma materTel Aviv University
Scientific career
FieldsAnimal behavior, sociobiology, entomology, chronobiology
InstitutionsThe Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Websiteguybloch.huji.ac.il

Guy Bloch (born May 23, 1962) is an Israeli scientist. He is a professor at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on the evolution and the molecular and physiological basis of social behavior and sociality in bees.[1][2]

Biography

Guy Bloch was born and raised in Kibbutz Nahshon and Moshav Kfar Bilu. He holds a bachelor's degree in Biology and MSc and a PhD degrees in Zoology from Tel Aviv University. In 1997-2001 he was a post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Gene Robinson at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

Scientific and academic career

When Bloch returned to Israel in 2001, he founded the research group for the study of social behavior in bees at the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior[3] at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences in the Faculty of Natural Sciences[4] at the Hebrew University. In 2008 he was invited to serve as a Visiting Professor at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and in Arizona State University (ASU). In 2015, he won the Clark-Way Harrison Visiting Scholar Award and spent a year at Washington University in St. Louis. Bloch was head of the Hebrew University's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior (2009-2015), member of the Hebrew University Senate, head of the Hebrew University fellowship committee, and head of the Institute of Life Sciences (from 10/2022).

Bloch's research focuses on understanding the evolution of sociality and the physiological and molecular basis of social behavior using bees (mainly bumble bees and honey bees) as the main research model. The main research topics include understanding the interrelationships between biological clocks, sleep control and social behavior, the influence of hormones, especially juvenile hormone (JH), on the evolution of sociality and social behavior, and deciphering the sociobiology of bumble bee colonies, including mechanisms determining body size and caste determination. Some of his group findings include the characterization of the molecular clockwork of bees, the discovery and characterization of remarkable socially regulated plasticity in the biological clock allowing bees to be active around the clock.[5][6][7] Additional studies have shown that the JH has a central effect on social behavior in bees, but the effect is different in bumble bees and honey bees.[8][9]

Bloch's research group was the first to show that RNA editing may affect social behavior.[10] The group also characterized charred honey bee remains in the oldest hives ever found in the world[11]

Awards and recognition

  • Fulbright[12] and BARD[13] scholarships in 1997

References

  1. ↑ "Honeybee Circadian Rhythms Are Affected More by Social Interactions, News Wise 2016".
  2. ↑ "Bumble Bees Give up Sleep to Care for Young, Even When They're Not Their Own, Newsweek 2019". Newsweek.
  3. ↑ "The Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences".
  4. ↑ "faculty of Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem".
  5. ↑ Fuchikawa, Taro; Eban-Rothschild, Ada; Nagari, Moshe; Shemesh, Yair; Bloch, Guy (September 2016). "Potent social synchronization can override photic entrainment of circadian rhythms". Nature Communications. 7 (1): 11662. doi:10.1038/ncomms11662. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 4879263. PMID 27210069.
  6. ↑ Bloch, Guy; Barnes, Brian M.; Gerkema, Menno P.; Helm, Barbara (2013-08-22). "Animal activity around the clock with no overt circadian rhythms: patterns, mechanisms and adaptive value". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 280 (1765): 20130019. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.0019. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 3712434. PMID 23825202.
  7. ↑ Bloch, Guy; Robinson, Gene E. (April 2001). "Reversal of honeybee behavioural rhythms". Nature. 410 (6832): 1048. doi:10.1038/35074183. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 11323660. S2CID 205016625.
  8. ↑ Shpigler, Hagai Y.; Herb, Brian; Drnevich, Jenny; Band, Mark; Robinson, Gene E.; Bloch, Guy (November 2020). "Juvenile hormone regulates brain-reproduction tradeoff in bumble bees but not in honey bees". Hormones and Behavior. 126: 104844. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104844. PMID 32860832. S2CID 221373126.
  9. ↑ Shpigler, Hagai Y.; Siegel, Adam J.; Huang, Zachary Y.; Bloch, Guy (September 2016). "No effect of juvenile hormone on task performance in a bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) supports an evolutionary link between endocrine signaling and social complexity". Hormones and Behavior. 85: 67–75. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2016.08.004. PMID 27503109. S2CID 3502585.
  10. ↑ Porath, Hagit T.; Hazan, Esther; Shpigler, Hagai; Cohen, Mira; Band, Mark; Ben-Shahar, Yehuda; Levanon, Erez Y.; Eisenberg, Eli; Bloch, Guy (December 2019). "RNA editing is abundant and correlates with task performance in a social bumblebee". Nature Communications. 10 (1): 1605. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09543-w. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6453909. PMID 30962428.
  11. ↑ Bloch, Guy; Francoy, Tiago M.; Wachtel, Ido; Panitz-Cohen, Nava; Fuchs, Stefan; Mazar, Amihai (2010-06-07). "Industrial apiculture in the Jordan valley during Biblical times with Anatolian honeybees". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (25): 11240–11244. doi:10.1073/pnas.1003265107. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2895135. PMID 20534519.
  12. ↑ "Fulbright scholar program, Guy Bloch".
  13. ↑ "Bard postdoctoral scholarship, Guy Bloch".
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