Drosophila Research at EPFL

Drosophila melanogaster, commonly called fruit flies or sometimes vinegar flies, have been employed as a model organism for biological research for over 100 years. Thanks to this sustained investigation, Drosophila is one of one of the most fully understood animal models in all of biomedical science with sophisticated molecular and genetic tools not available in other model systems. Drosophila has many genetic, physiological and behavioural similarities to humans and studies of this model organism are in harmony with the goals of 3R. Research using Drosophila have laid the foundations for many aspects of modern medicine and biology including our understanding of development, immunity and neuroscience. This has been recognized by the award of six Nobel Prizes to 10 researchers for their groundbreaking discoveries made with Drosophila.

Researchers at EPFL employ Drosophila to understand infection biology, gene regulation, motor control, brain evolution, neurodegenerative diseases, membrane lipids and transcriptomics. Read more about their work using the links below –