Fruit Flies And Cellular Demise – Zeroing In On The Causes of ALS

Orange human head silhouettes with fractal patterns representing neurons
UArizona News

UArizona molecular and cellular biology professor and BIO5 member Dr. Daniela Zarnescu, leads her lab in using fruit flies to study neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS. Dr. Zarnescu’s team have shown that locomotor defects are observed, like with ALS patients, where Dlp, short for Dally-like protein – is reduced at the site. The next step in this research is restoring the protein that corresponds to Dlp in humans, with hopes that it will increase motor function in patients.