THE IMPORTANCE

The importance of Drosophila as an animal model was discovered by Thomas Hunt

Morgan, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1933 after having
demonstrated that chromosomes carry genetic information, using drosophila. Since
then, this small insect, which grows quickly and is easily maintained in a laboratory,
has played a fundamental role in genetic research.

Its importance for human health has been recognized more recently with the Nobel
Prize in Medicine in 1995, for its work on the genetic control of early embryonic
development. There are mutant flies with defects in any of the several thousand genes
available and the entire genome has recently been sequenced.

Drosophila has contributed to the development of drugs to fight the pathogens

responsible for various diseases, from skin infections to pneumonia and meningitis.
Recent research with fruit flies has focused on the pathology of Alzheimer's disease,
because although the flies have a very simple brain they have highly developed nerves
and muscles.
Drosophila melanogaster has provided great advances in the knowledge of many
human diseases, including cancer, drug addiction, neurodegenerative diseases,
epilepsy, deficiencies of the immune system, pathologies of the visual system,
dementia.

What can the fly teach us about drug addiction? ", is the title of the lecture by ulrike
heberlein of the university of California, a pioneer in the study of drug abuse with
drosophila. Using drosophila, her lab is investigating the unknown links between genes
and drug-abusing behaviors and the mechanisms that regulate responses to
psychostimulants such as alcohol, cocaine and nicotine.

Drosophila is a unique model for studying certain aspects of cancer. Research on

tumor processes will be a prominent feature of the conference. Talk to Ross cagan, of
the university of Washington, whose recent experiments point to a drug that has a
direct effect on tumor progression; Cayetano gonzalez, from the irb Barcelona
(institute for biomedical research) in Barcelona, which will address the relationship
between stem cells and cancer; And gines morata, of the autonomous university of
Madrid, on apoptosis and tumor transformation.

Puglia have recently been added to the list of diseases studied with drosophila models.
Rolf bodmer of the burnham institute in the United States has initiated studies on
arrhythmias and heart failure. His lecture "arrhythmias and heart failure: the drosophila
model in congenital heart diseases" will provide the most innovative approach to
working with drosophila.
VOCABULARY

1. Biomedical: Relating to both biology and medicine.

2. Approach:
 Come near or nearer to (someone or something) in distance or time.
 Speak to (someone) for the first time about a proposal or request.
 Start to deal with (a situation or problem) in a certain way.

3. Innovative: (of a product, idea, etc.) featuring new methods; advanced and
original ‘innovative designs’

4. Drug addiction: Addiction to a drug or drugs, especially developed through

habitual non-medicinal use of an illegal drug, such as a narcotic, opiate, or
hallucinogen; an instance of this.

5. Arrhythmia: A condition in which the heart beats with an irregular or abnormal

rhythm.

6. Apoptosis: The death of cells which occurs as a normal and controlled part of
an organism's growth or development.

7. Failure:
 Lack of success.‘an economic policy that is doomed to failure’
 The neglect or omission of expected or required action. ‘their failure to comply
with the basic rules’
 The action or state of not functioning.‘symptoms of heart failure’count noun ‘a
chance engine failure’

8. Pathogen: A bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease.

9. Disease: A disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant,

especially one that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location
and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.

10. Chromosome: A threadlike structure of nucleic acids and protein found in the
nucleus of most living cells, carrying genetic information in the form of genes.