More than a decade after she was first struck by their similarities to humans, Julie Mustard’s bee research continues to break new ground. Today, Julie is one of a small number of investigators studying the effects of alcohol on bees, research that she believes can help fight alcoholism and addiction in humans.

The Phoenix native, who had long been interested in science and the humanities, entered HMC in 1984 and early on took an introductory biology class taught by William (Bill) Purves, now a professor emeritus. The class changed her world.

“The only reason why I really became interested in biology was because of Professor Purves,” she says. “He was a fantastic teacher.”

High school biology had left her disinterested, but Bill brought the discipline to life for Julie. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Arizona, along the way developing an interest in “how to get complicated responses, such as behavior, from interactions among proteins and regulation of genes.” Honeybees, social insects that work hard and shift their behavior as needed to benefit the hive, seemed the ideal model system.

Julie’s post doctorate work occurred in New Zealand, where she studied dopamine receptors and honeybee behavior. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter believed to play a key role in addiction.

Julie then joined Brian Smith’s group at the Rothenbuhler Honey Bee Research Lab at Ohio State University, where perhaps her most well-publicized work occurred: she began studying the effects of alcohol on honeybees.

“Bees are very interesting, and the more you learn about them the more interesting they are,” she says, adding, “and, many people drink alcohol.”

The natural progression, then, was to examine the effects of alcohol consumption on the behavior of honeybees, which in many ways are similar to humans: they are social, they are intelligent, they learn quickly, they work hard, and they can change their work habits. Her hope was to tie that research to her dopamine work.

“The original project looked at dose dependency and the effects of alcohol upon motor function,” says Julie, now an assistant professor of research with the Social Research Insects Group at Arizona State University. “We also measured the amount of alcohol in the hemolymph, which is the blood of insects.”

Among her most prominent findings: a simpler system—bees—can be used to accurately investigate the effects of alcohol upon more complex vertebrates, such as humans. On the molecular level, the pathways affected by alcohol are the same for honeybees and humans. After all, insects and mammals shared a common ancestor about 600 million years ago, and the genes and proteins involved in dopamine signaling have been highly conserved throughout evolution.

Julie has also studied the effects of alcohol upon learning and memory in bees and social interaction between bees.

Along with other scientists, Julie is concerned about the diminishing numbers of U.S. honeybee colonies. Bees are ecologically and economically important as crop pollinators and honey producers. Julie called the disappearance—known in bee circles as colony collapse disorder—“very serious and very widespread.” She says she is watching with interest the investigations of their decline.

“I enjoy everything about what I do—bees are incredibly interesting,” she says. “Once you figure out how to ask them a question in a way they can understand it, bees are unbelievably smart. I just love doing research on them.”