# Disease-Related Research *Drosophila* is used in diverse human disease-related research projects, serving as: - an excellent system for studying the function of genes conserved between humans and flies - a model of human diseases, including as a model of infection by human pathogens and as a model of diseases with genetic causes - a model of insects, including insect vectors of infectious diseases ### Selected resources relevant to human disease-related research [### "Why the fly?" informational page at the Manchester Fly Facility ](http://www.flyfacility.ls.manchester.ac.uk/forthepublic/whythefly/) [### "Building dialogues between clinical and biomedical research through cross-species collaborations" June 2017 ](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084952117302604) [### Organs comparable between flies and humans ](https://droso4schools.wordpress.com/organs/) [### Blog, Drosophila Models of Human Disease ](http://flydiseasemodels.blogspot.com/) [### DIOPT Diseases and Traits, ortholog search tool with human disease gene information ](http://www.flyrnai.org/diopt-dist) [### FlyBase Human Disease Models List ](http://flybase.org/lists/FBhh/) [### MARRVEL online resource for human disease variant and ortholog information ](http://www.marrvel.org/) [### ModelMatcher online resource ](https://www.modelmatcher.net/) ### All relevant curated links and news [### "A Notch on the many paths to cancer" post at Knowable Magazine ](https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2017/notch-many-paths-cancer) [### "Building dialogues between clinical and biomedical research through cross-species collaborations" June 2017 ](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084952117302604) [### "Flies in Neuroscience" animated YouTube video from J. Lisse at the University of Missouri ](https://youtu.be/jQa0wsXd5Bw) [### "Genetics on the Fly" primer in the journal Genetics ](http://www.genetics.org/content/201/3/815) [### "Hormones United" article in Aeon digital magazine ](https://aeon.co/essays/the-revolutionary-idea-revealing-the-bodys-hormonal-democracy) [### "Team science drives the success of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network" YouTube video ](https://youtu.be/b4W93YuZJdE) [### "The Fruit Fly ... The Making of a Model" 2017 Open-access chapter ](https://www.intechopen.com/books/drosophila-melanogaster-model-for-recent-advances-in-genetics-and-therapeutics/the-fruit-fly-drosophila-melanogaster-the-making-of-a-model-part-i-) [### "The Need for Basic Research" Rachel Wilson at Harvard Med School talks about neuroscience discovery using the fruit fly ](https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/multimedia/need-basic-research?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_term=field_news_item_3&utm_content=HMNews11262018) [### "To halt brain diseases, drugs take aim at protein traffic jams that kill neurons" E. Dolgin, in Science ](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/halt-brain-diseases-drugs-take-aim-protein-traffic-jams-kill-neurons) [### "Why fruit flies are the new lab rats" essay post at Zocalo Public Square ](http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2018/03/20/fruit-flies-new-lab-rats/ideas/essay/) [### "Why funding fruit fly research is essential for biomedical sciences" post at Open Access Government ](https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/fruit-fly-research/52396/) [### An introduction to Drosophila research from the modENCODE project ](http://modencode.sciencemag.org/drosophila/introduction) [### BBC Radio's 5-part Metamorphosis series to feature flies in space ](/news/bbc-radios-5-part-metamorphosis-series-feature-flies-space) March 01, 2021 A five-part "Metamorphosis" series on BBC Radio 4, hosted by renowned dipterist Erica McAlister, will feature an episode on Drosophila research. Episodes will be available online after they air. Check out the "Drosophila Melanogastronaut" episode here. ![Drosophila culture vials](/sites/g/files/omnuum4901/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/flyresearch/files/img_0254.jpg?itok=X6GJYdqc) [### Bellen et al. (2010) "100 years of Drosophila research and its impact on vertebrate neuroscience: a history lesson for the future" in Nature Reviews Neuroscience ](http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v11/n7/full/nrn2839.html) [### Blog post 01-2017 "Why Drosophila? Learning to Fly in the UDN" ](http://wanglerlab-bcm.org/learning-to-fly/) [### Blog post 03-17-2017, "Drosophila effectively models ... genetic kidney diseases" ](https://scienmag.com/drosophila-effectively-models-human-genes-responsible-for-genetic-kidney-diseases/) [### Blog post 12-2016 at TCH "How fruit flies and modern genomic technology helped to find a diagnosis for my daughter" ](http://hwpi.harvard.edu/flyresearch/news/inspiring-story-stemming-work-h-bellen-and-colleagues-undiagnosed-disease-network) [### Blog, Drosophila Models of Human Disease ](http://flydiseasemodels.blogspot.com/) [### DIOPT Diseases and Traits, ortholog search tool with human disease gene information ](http://www.flyrnai.org/diopt-dist) [### DIOPT ortholog identification tool (fly-to-human plus other species) ](http://www.flyrnai.org/diopt) [### Droso4LatAm site ](https://droso4latam.wordpress.com/) [### Drosophila as a Disease Model, a special collection from Disease Models & Mechanisms ](http://dmm.biologists.org/collection/drosophila-disease-model) [### Drosophila biologist Andreas Prokop wins 2022 BSDB Wolpert Medal ](/news/drosophila-biologist-andreas-prokop-wins-2022-bsdb-wolpert-medal) April 05, 2022 Drosophila biologist and outreach advocate Prof. Andreas Prokop (Univ. of Manchester) has been awarded the 2022 British Society for Development Biology (BSDB) Wolpert Medal. Read more about Prof. Prokop's advocacy and the award in BSDB's online... ![Wolpert Medal](/sites/g/files/omnuum4901/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/20220401_132536.jpeg?h=4c091478&itok=Zz5C5kJ-) [### Drosophila biologist Norbert Perrimon featured in article about hormone signaling ](/news/drosophila-biologist-norbert-perrimon-featured-article-about-hormone-signaling) February 28, 2019 An article by Pam Weintraub published in the digital magazine Aeon, " Hormones United," explores the 'democratic' way in which hormone signaling among organs maintains homeostasis and new ways in which researchers are learning about this medically... ![Screenshot of the article header at Aeon magazine](/sites/g/files/omnuum4901/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/flyresearch/files/screen_shot_2019-02-28_at_9.47.58_am.jpg?itok=g1ddNAm-) [### Drosophila biologist R. Lehmann among 2021 Vilcek Foundation prizewinners ](/news/drosophila-biologist-r-lehmann-among-2021-vilcek-foundation-prizewinners) September 11, 2020 Drosophila biologist Ruth Lehmann (MIT and Whitehead Institute) was recently announced as one of the recpients of the 2021 Vilcek Prize for Excellence. Specifically, Prof. Lehamnn received the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science "for unraveling the... ![Screenshot from a Vilcek Foundation webpage](/sites/g/files/omnuum4901/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/flyresearch/files/screen_shot_2020-09-11_at_10.15.25_am.png?h=0c77f71b&itok=YEP4-1uU) [### Drosophila biologists featured on WHYY The Pulse episode "What Lab Animals Teach Us" and WNPR Where We Live episode "The Buzz About Flies" ](/news/drosophila-biologists-featured-whyy-pulse-episode-what-lab-animals-teach-us-and) June 08, 2018 WHYY radio's health and science program The Pulse explores " What Lab Animals Teach Us." Guests include Drosophila biologists Stephanie Mohr (Harvard Medical School) and Hugo Bellen (Baylor College of Medicine). You can also catch Stephanie and UConn... ![An Illustration of a Radio](/sites/g/files/omnuum4901/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/480px-Radio.svg_.png?itok=J2iuxR3_)