Project description

Come learn about how to use the fruit fly to model rare human diseases! Rare disease patients face challenges when it comes to financing and developing treatments for their symptoms. Our lab finds potential therapies for rare diseases by screening hundreds of FDA approved drugs on a fly model of a rare human disorder. These screens have the potential to move straight from the lab to the clinic, overcoming the technical hurdles associated with developing new treatments for rare diseases. We recently completed a drug repurposing screen on a fruit fly model of a rare neurodevelopmental disease, and we need your help validating our preliminary work! In our lab, you will explore the utility of the fruit fly to model human disease, learn how to administer different therapeutic compounds to flies, and measure changes in physical and behavioral phenotypes in response to these drugs.

Keywords: Drosophila, genetics, rare disease, drug repurposing, neurodevelopment