Episode Details

Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this story spotlights an Oxford-led breakthrough: a CRISPR-engineered “superfood” for honeybees. By bioengineering yeast to produce essential sterols, lipids, and vitamins that typical feeds lack, researchers achieved dramatic improvements in colony health—reporting up to a 15× increase in viable pupae—offering a potential lifeline for pollinators and global food security.

Summary

• Why bees matter: ~1 in 3 bites of human food relies on pollinators

• Economic impact: hundreds of billions globally; tens of billions in the U.S.

• The problem: climate stress, habitat loss, and a critical nutritional gap

• The solution: CRISPR-edited yeast producing essential sterols for bee diets

• Results: up to 15× more viable pupae and sustained brood rearing

• Bonus: reduces resource competition between farmed and wild pollinators

If you want to watch the full episode 6, you can view it here:

⁠Full Episode

Show Notes

• BBC Coverage

• Nature Paper