Research Interests

The main research interests of our group are the evolution and mechanisms underlying sociality and social behavior, we study bees as a model. To study these fascinating and intricate phenomena we integrate analyses at different levels, from molecular to social.  In recent years, one of our main research focuses has been the interplay between circadian rhythms and social behavior ("sociochronobiology") but we also study additional important sociobiological processes such as size-related division of labor in bumblebees, the social evolution of juvenile hormone signaling, the interplay between sleep and social behavior, and the involvement of non-coding RNA and RNA editing in behavioral plasticity.

Courses Taught

• Animal Behavior
• Sociobiology
• Biological clocks

Prizes and Awards

• Fulbright Postdoctoral Award (1997)
• Nominated as a Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Senior Lecturer in Life Sciences (2004)
• Prof. Hannah Farkas-Himsley and Alexander Himsley Prize for Excellence in in Life Sciences (2005)
• Clark Way Harrison Visiting Professorship in Arts and Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis (2015)
• The Hebrew University Rector List of excellent teachers (2018)

Grants

• Clock organization and socially mediated behavioral plasticity in honey bees. German – Israeli Foundation (G.I.F.), 2006-2008, (€180,000)
• CINCHRON - Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (European Commission; grant number 765937), 6/2018 – 5/2022 (Euro 260,300/3,809,005)
• ICOB: miRNAs and the social regulation of behavioral plasticity. BSF-NSF; Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) Special Program, 2013-2016 (US$ 670,000)
• Collective behavior of oscillators: From cells to societies. The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI), 2015-2017 (US$100,000)
• Toward an integrative science of collective behavior: A cross-species model for the interplay between individual variation and behavioral plasticity and its influence on group performance. The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI), 2015-2017 (US$100,000)
• Uncoupling internal clocks as a mechanism for plasticity in circadian rhythms. ISF 2015-2020 (INS 2,450,000 total)

Representative Publications

• Bloch G, Robinson GE (2001) Reversal of honeybee behavioural rhythms. Nature 410: 1048.
• The Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium (authors from my group: Rubin, E., Shemesh Y, Cohen M, Bloch G) (2006). Insights into social insects from the genome of the honey bee Apis mellifera. Nature 443: 931-949.
• Bloch G, et al. (2010) Industrial apiculture in the Jordan valley during Biblical times with Anatolian honey bees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107: 11240-11244
• Fuchikawa T, Eban-Rothschild A, Nagari M, Shemesh Y, Bloch G  (2016) Potent social synchronization can override photic entrainment of circadian rhythms. Nature Communications 7: 11662; DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11662
• Porath HT, et al…, Bloch G (2019) RNA editing is abundant and correlates with task performance in a social bumblebee. Nature Communications 10: 1605
• Nagari M, Gera A, Jonsson S, Bloch G (2019) Bumble bee workers give up sleep to care for offspring that are not their own. Current Biology 29 (20), 3488-3493

See also

• Bumble Bees Give up Sleep to Care for Young, Even When They're Not Their Own (Newsweek)
• מתקהלות ולא נדבקות: ללמוד מהדבורים על הקורונה (ynet)
• Biological Clock Of Honey Bee More Similar To Humans Than To Insects (Science Daily)
• Biblical bee-keepers picked the best bees (NewScientist)
• Honeybee Circadian Rhythms Are Affected More by Social Interactions (newswise)