Learning to fly: Fruit flies, ageing and dementia

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The eye of the fly

Prior to meeting them for the first time, I always do some research into the scientists I’m due to film. This time, though, Linda Partridge from UCL’s Institute of Healthy Ageing was a bit different. She is both a professor and a Dame.

I’d not met any double-barrelled scientists before, so it was hard to resist Googling the full extent of Professor Dame Linda Partridge’s achievements. I have to admit she was a bit intimidating on paper. However, when I told her this, she casually replied, “Live long enough and it’s easy to look impressive” which was an effective way to put me at my ease.

Linda is just the sort of scientist you’d hope would be investigating Alzheimer’s disease.

Critical to her research are fruit flies. Researchers of Drosophila melanogaster – in scientific parlance – have been plundering their genetic secrets for years. For a variety of reasons, including ease of rearing and speed of growth, the Drosophila genome has become one of the most widely used sources of information and inspiration for scientists bent on understanding complex life.

Drs Fiona Kerr and Oyinkan Adesakin from Linda’s ‘buzzing’ lab (you quickly discover that not every fruit fly is happy to remain confined), walked me through the process of how the flies are cared for and studied: temperature and light regulated rooms filled with what appear to be old milk bottles, each containing flies in various states of development. In other words, bottle upon bottle of genetic questions hopefully being answered.

A fly’s entire lifespan is just 80-90 days long, which comes in handy for genetic studies. It’s possible to introduce some form of genetic alteration and days later have a read out of the consequences of that change. Kerr and Adesakin are examining what happens when the genes suspected of causing Alzheimer’s disease in humans (tau and amyloid-β peptide) are introduced into flies.

By introducing these genes and influencing the tissues in which they are produced, Partridge’s team are learning how they result in the toxicity that ultimately leads to a neurone’s demise, and subsequently to Alzheimer’s disease.

‘How do you know whether a fly is demented?’ said the Dame Professor, clearly anticipating my next question. The answer is both surprising and elegant:

Barry Gibb, Multimedia Editor, Wellcome Trust

Image credit: David Strutt, Wellcome Images

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.