You're working with what?!

A portrait of a question.

Fruit Flies: Simple model organisms that have a short life span, are easy to look after and share many genes with humans.

We know that schizophrenia is a complex disorder, involving both genetic and environmental interactions. We also know that it is a polygenic disease (i.e. involves hundreds if not thousands of genes). Each of these genes probably contributes a very small effect, meaning specific variation on any one gene will only increase your risk of developing schizophrenia by a very small amount.

Lots of candidate genes have been identified since the publication of Genome Wide Association Studies and the formation of the International Schizophrenia Consortium. However, the functional properties of these genes and how they might influence increasing risk of schizophrenia are yet to be determined.

So the next step, in our minds, is to figure out what the genes actually do by manipulating the nerve cells in a model organism. This is really functional biology. Since Fruit Flies share many genes with Humans (homologs), it is reasonable to suggest that results we see in flies may also happen in human nerve cells.

Julio Molina Montenegro, a film producer within the Media School, Faculty of Communication has created the first in a series of short films about the research carried out at Bournemouth University. He chose our fruit fly work as the pilot.

We hope you enjoy it, allowing you to see what motivates many researchers to spend their lives asking a question.

If you have any questions, or want to more know about this work, please email us at bugenetics@gmail.com