The Gardening Guide

Posts Tagged ‘hope’

For several years, medical scientists at the Life & Medical Sciences Center of the University of Bonn, Germany, have carried out research into the genes of fruit flies.

The common fruit fly is one of the most frequently used organisms used in biological research. It is exceptionally well suited to such studies because of their genetic similarity in so many ways to that of human beings and other mammals.

They are easy to take care of, they mature and breed quickly, they lay many eggs, and have a life span of about 10 days, allowing several generations to be studied in just a few weeks time. A majority of the genes involved in diseases in humans have a similar matching genetic code sequence in fruit flies.

United States also pursues research with fruit flies
Currently also working with fruit flies, as well as the research taking place in Germany, scientists at the University of Maryland in the U.S. are involved in genetic research and on Novemer 2nd of this year, 2009 results of their research was published in “The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, describing how they altered fruit fly genes to model the failure of insulin production similar to that occurring in Type-1 diabetes. But perhaps that research should be covered separately while here I prefer to concentrate on the Bonn research conclusions that could in the future affect the lives of obese type 2 diabetics, who may continue to produce insulin, compared to the type 1 diabetic whose insulin production by the pancreas fails entirely.

University of Bonn research announcement
The newest announcement of research at the University of Bonn, was on October 15, 2009, through the prestigious molecular biology online journal, EMBO, describes the discovery of yet another fruit fly gene that, if defective, leads to the inability of the fruit fly to metabolize, that is to build, the necessary fat to maintain its health and survival.

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