The humble fruit fly, drosophila melanogaster, will help scientists to conquer Alzheimer’s Disease. Yes, seriously.

This scourge of wine-makers (turning wine to vinegar) is much used for research – largely because of its very short life span. It is relevant to study flies because we share a surprising 75% of the flies’ DNA. Thus, what works for flies may well work for us.

As For Flies, So For Humans

There is more similarity than you think between humans and flies. It turns out that as flies age they suffer from diabetes and heart disease. Well, what would you expect from a creatures that lives on sugar and carries out stressful flying all day?

The Alzheimer’s Link

Research company Genescient have been studying fruit flies for years. They have found that the DNA of fruit flies contains 70% of all known human disease genes. This enables Genescient to carry out research on the fruit flies to find the gene combinations which cause disease – in this case Alzheimer’s Disease.

They are able to do so because of a recent collaboration with another company, Kronos, who have masses of Alzheimer’s data. Combining this with the knowledge of the fruit fly Genescient have will almost certainly identify common patterns of DNA which lead to Alzheimer’s.

A treatment will then not be far away.

Long Lived Fruit Flies

Already, Genescient have fruit flies which are living 4 times longer than normal. The normal fruit fly. It is only a matter of time before this extension of lifespan will be applied to humans.

And why not? After all, why should a whale be able to live 200 years when humans have a measly 120 year maximum?

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