Why should we care about fruit flies?

• Fruit flies share ~60% of the genes present in humans, including genes for learning and circadian rhythms
• 3 in 4 human genetic diseases have a parallel in fruit flies.
• Fruit flies age like we do, can get drunk, can be kept awake with coffee, and serenade their romantic interests. These similarities suggest that studying fly brains can provide insights into our own brains.
• NASA sent fruit flies into space in 1947 — and they returned alive, paving the way for all astronauts.
• Fruit fly brains solve many of the same problems that we do, including figuring out how to navigate from point A to B, detecting scents in nature, and determining which way objects are moving in their environment.
• Highlighting their importance for medical research, fruit fly research has already been awarded six Nobel prizes, awarded to a total of 10 laureates

• Credit: Tyler Sloan for FlyWire, Princeton University, (Dorkenwald et al., <embargoed>, 2024)
• Caption: All 139,255 brain cells in the brain of an adult fruit fly. Activity within these cells drives an entire organism, from sensory perception to decision making and the control of actions, such as flying. They are connected by over 50 million synaptic connections.

• Credit: Tyler Sloan and Amy Sterling for FlyWire, Princeton University, (Dorkenwald et al., <embargoed>, 2024)
• Caption: 50 largest neurons of the fly brain connectome.

• Credit: Amy Sterling, Murthy and Seung Labs, Princeton University (Dorkenwald et al., <embargoed>, 2024)
• Caption: The fruit fly brain can be divided into 78 regions called neuropils. Each is involved in different computations that support behaviors such as sight, flight, and memory.

Videos 

More images and renderings

Can be found on FlyWire’s site, and include interactive, 3D models as well as renderings: https://flywire.ai/gallery

Funding

FlyWire was supported by the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, National Science Foundation, Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, Google, and Amazon.