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BredaLab Research Techniques

​We use several techniques in the lab, here are the routinely used

DROSOPHILA BEHAVIOUR

  • Locomotor activity
  • Sleep analysis
  • Anxiety-level assays
  • Memory assays
  • Longevity assays
  • Negative geotaxis

IMAGING

  • Confocal imaging
  • Neurodegeneration assays for eye and central neurons.

GENETICS

  • Forward genetics
  • Reverse genetics
  • GAL4/UAS system
  • CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing.

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

  • Westerns blot
  • PCR (Genotyping)
  • qRT-PCR
  • Biochemical assays

WHY FRUIT FLIES?

​Why bother with this tiny little insect that does not even look human?

I could go on and on about fruit flies and why they are a useful and powerful model in modern research but I will not. Here are the main facts about Drosophila vs mouse models:

  • Relative small genome (0.14 Gbp vs 2.8 Gbp of the mouse)
  • Generation time: 10 days (lots lot of experiments!!! In 50 days (less than 2 months) you could easily carry out 5 experiments, while still waiting for having a baby mouse
  • Gene associated with human diseases: 75%. What about the remaining 25%? Don’t worry we can humanise flies but making them transgenic
  • Production of offspring? Easy win for the fruitfly 10 vs >100
  • Ethical restriction? Not really
  • Genetic tools: Lots and more to come
  • Price: pretty inexpensive