Recent research has found that gut microbiomes become destabilized in the elderly, possibly compromising the essential functions that they provide. Like humans, bumble bees are highly social animals that rely on gut microbes for nutrition and defense from pathogens and microbiome destabilization in bumble bees has been linked to aging. Tobin will use this fellowship to initiate a collaboration with Dr. James Crall, who has pioneered behavioral tracking in bumble bees, combining these methods with microbiome analyses, we aim to gain insights into the links between social behaviors, microbiome stability, and host health.