Drosophila – a versatile model in biology & medicine

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a versatile model organism that has been used in biomedical research for over a century to study a broad range of phenomena. There are many technical advantages of using Drosophila over vertebrate models; they are easy and inexpensive to culture in laboratory conditions, have a much shorter life cycle, they produce large numbers of externally laid embryos and they can be genetically modified in numerous ways. Research using Drosophila has made key advances in our understanding of regenerative biology and will no doubt contribute to the future of regenerative medicine in many different ways.