Sherry Aw

Principal Investigator, IMCB, A*STAR

Fruit fly brains: Sex & Drugs & Disease 

Yes, fruit flies have brains, and for the past 100 years, these tiny animals have been teaching us about brain function and disease in humans. Fruit flies and humans share more genetic similarities than one might expect. In fact, research in fruit flies has led to 6 Nobel prize-winning discoveries that have contributed greatly to our understanding of human physiology. With brains a million times smaller than ours, fruit flies have helped us to dissect the intricate mechanisms behind essential states like sleep, complex behaviors like courtship, the effects of drugs like alcohol on our brains (flies love alcohol too!) and neurological diseases. While neurodegenerative diseases are still intractable challenges, we hope that what we learn can lead to future novel avenues for rational drug design and treatments.