Fruit Fly Stem Cell Research Paves Way for Medical Innovations

Aug. 28, 2024

By Stephanie Godward, Communications and Marketing Director, College of Arts & Sciences

Chemistry major Ayog Prasad recently made a breakthrough discovery while researching autophagy, the process by which cells recycle and repair themselves. He found that by increasing a gene that triggers autophagy in fruit flies, also known as Drosophila melanogaster, he was able to block the aging process.

This research, completed through Assistant Professor of Biology Rafael Demarco’s stem cell lab, could have real-world impact on human health and well-being. They are now learning more to better understand the implications of their recent findings to submit them for publication.

“In terms of biomedical applications, there are a lot of evolutionarily conserved pathways between flies and humans, and there could be a lot of medical applications in the future based on what we are doing here,” Prasad states. “My results with the autophagy project really surprised me. Just being able to prevent age-related decline where you’re used to seeing it, and taking two semesters to quantify that work . . . to see it all come together is impressive.”

This fall, Prasad will be a senior on the Biochemistry track and is currently applying for medical school. Through his research as an undergraduate student, he has had the opportunity to learn important skills, in addition to making impactful discoveries in the process.

“I think working with fruit flies stood out to me because I heard of them as a model organism before, and I was interested in seeing how that whole process works, and maintaining them, and establishing genetic crosses,” he said.

Several undergraduate students are gaining invaluable experiences within the lab. In fact, work contributed by these talented undergraduate researchers played a crucial role in Demarco’s lab recently obtaining its very first grant award of $437K from the National Institute on Aging within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Demarco states that the goal of his lab is to understand the regulation of stem cells. Demarco’s work and research primarily explore how different stem cell populations are impacted by fat metabolism. Stem cells need to be maintained throughout a lifetime because without stem cells, organs essential for survival cannot be sustained. 

“Understanding what is happening here will make us better understand what is happening to our own stem cells,” he said.

About 70% of the genes in fruit flies have biomedical applications to humans, and since they are cost-effective to maintain and have a life cycle of 30 days, they are perfect for the stem cell research lab’s work.

“We can get really high numbers in terms of being able to repeat experiments and verify results – it's easy to do on the fly, and they age really fast,” Demarco said. “The life cycle of a fly from an egg to an adult takes about 10 days. A 30-day year-old fly is very geriatric, so when we are thinking of what contributes to stem cell function with age, that is an excellent model to do that. There are a few very well-characterized stem cells present in the fly, including the ones that we use, which are present in the male gonad of the fly.”

By using a technique in the lab called immunofluorescence, antibodies are used to visually recognize specific proteins, and those antibodies are labeled with fluorescent molecules. Different cell types can be labeled as well through this technique, allowing undergraduate researchers to observe changes in real time.

Junior Biology Major Sophia Parker, who is also a member of the UofL Field Hockey team, is a pre-med student whose goal is to go to medical school.

“From an undergraduate perspective, the skills you gain in the lab are invaluable and fundamentally show you how to work as a team,” Parker said. “The things we are learning in our classes – genetics, biotechnology and molecular biology – and seeing how they translate from the classroom to a professional environment, really sets up students for success in their respective fields, especially in the pre-medical and pre-professional tracks,” she said.

As a newer member of the lab, she is also cognizant of the community that forms among researchers.

“The essence of collaboration was pretty impactful when I first joined the lab as one of the younger members of the group, to see just how much people are working together, and even if you are working on different projects, crosschecking ideas or results or even working in between labs with other groups – to see it play out was really cool,” Parker states.

Will Sanders, who graduated in May with a Biology degree on the MCD track, will pursue his PhD this fall. He was drawn to this lab work in particular to gain experience working with stem cells as an undergraduate student.

“Being able to take what you learn in the classroom into the lab as an undergrad, you take it from the textbook to real life, and you can translate things to things you can see, especially with immunofluorescence. You can see the results right away,” Sanders said. “You can alter things in an organism and actually see what it does instead of just looking at a data sheet. We can see it with our own eyes, and that is really impactful. Being able to go all the way back to fly husbandry, and crossing two flies that carry certain genes, and then we can carry that all the way to a picture and compare it – it's unique about this lab.”

Developing the drive to keep moving forward even when things don’t work out the first time is another benefit to stem cell lab research.

“You have to keep trying different things with different approaches – that is applicable to a lot of careers, especially Biology,” Sanders said.

Demarco reiterated the importance of undergraduate researchers' involvement in his work moving forward, as they continue to advance as a team with the hope of impacting human health through their findings.

“The lab is working because these people are here,” he said.