Tag: Drosophila melanogaster

2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded for Fruit Fly Research

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to three U.S. scientists “for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm”.  Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine said, “Their discoveries explain how plants, animals, and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized … Continue reading 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded for Fruit Fly Research

The Portrait of a Superstar of Science – Drosophila melanogaster

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt have heard of Drosophila melanogaster, the fly that has played a key role in important discoveries about skin cancer, the innate immune system and the development of tissues, but we’ve never really given this tiny superstar of science enough prominence on this blog.  To help correct this … Continue reading The Portrait of a Superstar of Science – Drosophila melanogaster

So, what can a growing fly teach us about skin cancer?

Back in April we welcomed launch of the Golden Goose Awards , an annual prize awarded to honor federally funded research  “whose work may once have been viewed as unusual, odd, or obscure, but has produced important discoveries benefiting society in significant ways.”. The Golden Goose award was developed in response to attacks on basic research … Continue reading So, what can a growing fly teach us about skin cancer?

How nerve cells reach their niche.

Developmental biology, the study of the processes through which organisms grow and develop, is an area of biomedical research where modal organisms - ranging from the slime mold Dictyostelium  discoideum to the chicken - play a crucial role, and one that has been honoured with several  Nobel Prizes in recent years.  For example, the 1995 … Continue reading How nerve cells reach their niche.

Mice pave the way to a cord blood transplant advance

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow that affects over 200,000 Americans and still kills thousands every year despite the great progress made over recent decades in developing  effective treatments for many leukemia types.  When undergoing treatment for leukemia many patients require hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation to replace the blood stem … Continue reading Mice pave the way to a cord blood transplant advance