29 Aug Fruit fly research is heating up at Morgridge
Ana Caroline Paiva Gandara, an assistant scientist in the Drummond-Barbosa Lab, has built her career on the metaphorical “backbone” of insects. Most recently, she’s turned to Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the fruit fly — a powerful model organism that has contributed to many fundamental research discoveries.
Assistant scientist Ana Caroline Paiva Gandara gets a closer look at her research on the effects of thermal stress on the reproductive system of Drosophila.
“The fact that Drosophila research has all these genetic tools, it opens the possibility to think about science more easily,” she says. “You can have the craziest idea to explore, and with Drosophila, it’s not infinite, but it offers a very wide world of options.”
In new research published recently in the journal Scientific Reports, Gandara and Drummond-Barbosa describe how chronic exposure to warm temperatures causes infertility in adult male Drosophila.