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Fruit Flies & Human Disease

Those humble fruit flies hovering around your fruit bowl play a leading role in the study of human diseases. Scientists use fruit flies to gain insight into the causes of many illnesses. Researchers investigating everything from diabetes and cancer to sleep disorders and human genetics are now working with the tiny insects in laboratories worldwide.

  1. Fruit Flies and Humans

    • Fruit flies, also known as Drosophila, share a majority of human genes. In 2001 biologists at the University of California, San Diego, identified 548 fruit fly genes considered counterparts to the genes responsible for more than 700 different human genetic diseases. The San Diego-based researchers say fruit fly genes play an important role for scientists working to unravel the mysteries of at least a thousand known human genetic diseases.

    Fruit Flies in the Lab

    • Northwestern University professor Ravi Allada says that while fruit flies are easier to manipulate and study due to their simpler structures, they still replicate the biology found in more complex systems like humans. Allada says fruit flies are less expensive to work with than mammals, and scientists can screen thousands of genes in thousands of flies at once. In addition, their shorter life spans enable researchers to observe generations of flies in a period of months.

    Diabetes Research

    • University of Maryland researchers work with genetically altered fruit flies. They hope to uncover the genes and gene pathways of metabolic changes responsible for human insulin resistance and diabetes. "We can use these genetically manipulated flies as a model to understand defects underlying human diabetes and to identify genes and target points for pharmacological intervention," University of Maryland entomology professor Leslie Pick said in a Nov. 2, 2009, university news release.

    Genetic Disorders

    • In 2010, researchers at Emory University reported using fruit flies to learn more about an inherited condition called Galactosemia. The illness impedes the proper breakdown of galactose, a specific sugar commonly found in dairy products. Emory scientists believe studying the insects can help them pinpoint effective drugs to combat the condition.

    Cancer Research

    • Fruit flies currently serve as lab models for researchers investigating gliomas at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Considered the most common malignant brain tumor, the Salk Institute reported that gliomas accounted for about 77 percent of all such tumors diagnosed in the United States in 2008. At the University of Rochester Medical Center, modified fruit flies help geneticists working to develop ways of boosting the human body's cancer-resisting ability.

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