Staff Profile

Dr Nicola Simcock is a Research Associate for the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University. Her area of expertise is honeybee health and  physiology and her current project focuses on the transmission and spread of the Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus. 

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Currently I am working on a project investigating the rates and transmission of the increasingly prevalent Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus in the lab of Prof Giles Budge. The hope is to understand how the virus interacts with the host and spreads, allowing us to develop an evidence based toolkit for bee farmers in the field.  

My previous project was interested in the chemosensory system of the honeybee, in particular gustation and how the bee encodes the taste of specific foods. 

The insect gustatory system is relatively understudied in comparison to all other sensory systems and yet the principals in which it functions are applicable to range of animals, including ourselves. The honeybee provides an ideal model system for this work as it encodes sensory information using a greatly reduced number of gustatory receptors which allows for greater ease and accuracy of recording. 

• Simcock NK, Gray H, Bouchebti S, Wright GA. Appetitive olfactory learning and memory in the honeybee depend on sugar reward identity. Journal of Insect Physiology 2018, 106(Part 1), 71-77.
• Simcock NK. Digest: Love is in the air: Sticklebacks’ choice of mate depends on dissolved oxygen levels. Evolution 2017, 71(1), 189-190.
• Simcock NK, Wakeling LA, Ford D, Wright GA. Effects of age and nutritional state on the expression of gustatory receptors in the honeybee (Apis mellifera). PLOS One 2017, 12(4), e0175158.
• Simcock NK, Gray HE, Wright GA. Single amino acids in sucrose rewards modulate feeding and associative learning in the honeybee. Journal of Insect Physiology 2014, 69, 41-48.
• Wright GA, Mustard JA, Simcock NK, Ross-Taylor AAR, McNicholas LD, Popescu A, Marion-Poll F. Parallel Reinforcement Pathways for Conditioned Food Aversions in the Honeybee. Current Biology 2010, 20(24), 2234-2240.