Studying Huntington's Disease in Model Organisms

For a while now I’ve been working with a couple of colleagues at the University of Leicester to produce some videos about the use of model organisms in research. The “big film” is still in gestation, but the project has generated a number of other videos which are now available on YouTube.

The most recent 3-minute video features the research of Dr Flav Giorgini and his team. In particular, the film focuses on their work involves the use of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) to improve our understanding of the fundamental processes involved in Huntington’s Disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

It is our hope that videos of this kind will help explain the relevance of work on other species, and especially, lower organisms. We would value any comments you have about the film and especially its potential as a teaching tool.

Other videos already available as part of this series include:

• An interview with Prof Bambos Kyriacou talking about Drosophila and biorhythms (3 mins)
• An interview with Prof Rhona Borts talking about her use of yeast to study both infertility and cancers that develop from errors in DNA replication (1:40)
• A longer interview with Dr Flav Giorgini talking about his work (9:11)
• A longer interview with Prof Kyriacou (14:10)
• A longer interview with Prof Borts (5:44)
• Prof Borts explaining why the life cycle of yeast makes it a valuable research tool (3:11)

The production of these videos has been supported by the BBSRC and GENIE, the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning about Genetics

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