/-/https/www.sciencebuddies.org/cdn/Files/21464/5/sb-logo.png){kind=logo}
/-/https/www.sciencebuddies.org/cdn/Files/21464/5/sb-logo.png){kind=logo}
I am going to study Parkinson's disease for my science project, using fruit flies.
However... I am not sure how to get the fruit flies to HAVE Parkinson's disease so that I can do my project...
Help?!
Parkinson's disease & fruit flies???
Moderators: AmyCowen, kgudger, MadelineB, Moderators
-
deleted-221280
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 10:40 am
- Occupation: Student: 11th grade
- Project Question: Invertebrate study with a strong application?
- Project Due Date: April 2016
- Project Status: I am conducting my research
-
deleted-140482
- Former Expert
- Posts: 186
- Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 12:56 pm
- Occupation: Postdoctoral Fellow
- Project Question: Signing up to be an Expert
- Project Due Date: n/a
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Parkinson's disease & fruit flies???
Hi Rain,
Fruit flies ARE one model researchers use to study Parkinson's disease, but in order to induce a Parkinson's-like disease, they use genetically modified fruit flies that generally carry a mutation in at least one gene that is thought to be important in Parkinson's. If you truly want to do research on Parkinson's disease in fruit flies, you are going to have to do a lot more background research. Learn about what is out there, what genes are believed to be involved, what fly models are available, etc. Then, if you truly want to do research using a fruit fly model of Parkinson's, you are almost definitely going to need to find an university lab already doing such work that can help you with your experiments and that has the flies in question. You'll want to start looking to find out if there are such labs in your area and make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to contact them before your science project is due.
If you decide you don't want to work with the fruit flies or this turns out to not be feasible, try to think of other ways you can continue to research something interesting to you. Maybe you could do some research into Parkinson's disease that occurs strictly online looking at gene mutations using online databases. Either way, I'd start by doing a lot more research on your area of interest.
I hope this helps and feel free to post any more questions in this thread.
JMP
Fruit flies ARE one model researchers use to study Parkinson's disease, but in order to induce a Parkinson's-like disease, they use genetically modified fruit flies that generally carry a mutation in at least one gene that is thought to be important in Parkinson's. If you truly want to do research on Parkinson's disease in fruit flies, you are going to have to do a lot more background research. Learn about what is out there, what genes are believed to be involved, what fly models are available, etc. Then, if you truly want to do research using a fruit fly model of Parkinson's, you are almost definitely going to need to find an university lab already doing such work that can help you with your experiments and that has the flies in question. You'll want to start looking to find out if there are such labs in your area and make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to contact them before your science project is due.
If you decide you don't want to work with the fruit flies or this turns out to not be feasible, try to think of other ways you can continue to research something interesting to you. Maybe you could do some research into Parkinson's disease that occurs strictly online looking at gene mutations using online databases. Either way, I'd start by doing a lot more research on your area of interest.
I hope this helps and feel free to post any more questions in this thread.
JMP