Thursday, October 06, 2005

the mighty fruit fly

Any number of things are studied in the fruit fly.

The effects of ethanol, of cocaine, of methamphetamines, sleep, circadian rhythms, neurodegenerative diseases, aging, courtship, olfaction, agression and fighting. It's quite amazing. There are studies in which they cut off the top of a fly's head and insert probes to study brain activity in response to different odors.

Reminds me of that scene in Hannibal ... ew.

And someone told me over lunch that there is a guy who is trying to genetically engineer a mouse to be bat-like with long tarsels that can be the framework for wings!

Another gentleman tells me that he had a 6 years stumper to his research that he has been able to overcome in the last nine months. He generated 9 antibodies against a protein for naught but the 10th and 11th have opened the door to considerable study!