Developing a heart research tool using fruit flies

Joint NC3Rs/BHF PhD Studentship: Developing a drosophila melanogaster model of the cardiac myocyte action potential to investigate function and performance (Dr Jeremy Niven)

Supervised by Dr Jeremy Niven, a PhD student is studying heart cells from fruit flies to explore its use as a model for heart and circulatory disease research. Despite their obvious stark differences, fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and humans are remarkably similar, including sharing genes involved in heart development and heart muscle cell function. But very few scientists have explored the fruit fly adult heart in detail so far; this could yield important insights into heart cell biology. In this project, the student will develop techniques to examine the biology of the fruit fly heart from molecules and cells to the whole organ. A computer model of the heart muscle cell’s electrical characteristics that describes how the heart cells function individually and together will be developed. This research will reveal a new, alternative way to study the molecular biology of heart cells and to screen drugs to find out if they can alter heart cell activity. Although research will still need to be done on higher animal models, this fruit fly model will reduce the numbers of larger animals that need to be used, and reduce research costs.