For over a century, humble fruit flies have paved the way for many significant scientific breakthroughs. This small insect has helped researchers understand that X-rays can cause genetic mutations, with genes being passed from parents to children through chromosomes. A gene known as period helps our bodies maintain time; disruptions to this internal clock can lead to jet lag and increase the risk of neurological and metabolic diseases. These findings, along with nearly 90,000 other studies, are part of an essential online database called FlyBase, which researchers utilize daily to design new experiments more quickly. These tests could help explore the underlying causes of diseases and develop new treatments. Science builds on previous insights, and a comprehensive repository of past advances serves as a catalyst for future discoveries.
The website receives approximately 770,000 page views each month from scientists around the world, facilitating the development of personalized treatments in rare cases, modeling neurodegenerative diseases in humans, and identifying candidates for screening conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. However, its vital resources are now facing potential layoffs that threaten its future and the ability to enhance research efficiency. This spring, the Trump administration withdrew grants used to maintain FlyBase as part of a $2.2 billion budget cut at Harvard University.
“I use FlyBase every day, and it’s incredibly essential,” said Celeste Berg, a professor of genomic sciences at the University of Washington. “What we know about human genes and how they function comes from model systems like Drosophila.” Humans share about 60% of our genes with the fruit fly known scientifically as Drosophila melanogaster. FlyBase’s current stability underscores how interconnected and interdependent research efforts are, highlighting how funding for one institution can have global repercussions. Over 4,000 labs utilize FlyBase.
Harvard received approximately $2 million annually in federal funds to maintain FlyBase, which constitutes a majority of the website’s overall operating budget. However, the University of New Mexico, Indiana University, and the University of Cambridge in the UK are partners and beneficiaries in assisting Harvard with FlyBase management. “This doesn’t just affect Harvard,” stated Brian Calvi, a biology professor at Indiana University who is part of the FlyBase management team. “The ripple effects extend to the international biomedical research community.”
According to Norbert Perimon, a professor of developmental biology at Harvard, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences temporarily funded FlyBase, but that support will cease in October. Earlier this month, a judge ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for Harvard researchers who lost the grant, but the funds have not yet been allocated to FlyBase, Perimon noted. The administration has promised to appeal decisions that could block funding flows. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health, declined to comment.
The Transmitter, a neuroscience news site, was the first to report the layoffs at FlyBase. The Harvard Crimson reported on the decision of Harvard’s School of Arts and Sciences not to extend provisional funding. Calvi mentioned that the FlyBase grant covered full or partial salaries for eight individuals at Harvard, three in Indiana, five in Cambridge, and one at the University of New Mexico. While Indiana and Cambridge have secured some funding to operate programs until next year, the New Mexico position ended in August.
Operating since 1992, FlyBase has been funded by the federal government for over three decades. It curates and summarizes research papers, organizes findings on specific genes, and catalogs information on genetically modified fruit flies to understand how particular genes lead to normal development. The fruit fly is the primary animal model for biomedical research as scientists have been able to map the brain to the genome, and it is relatively easy to handle. Berg, an avid FlyBase user and a professor at Genome Sciences, studies human development and how cells form organs. FlyBase allows researchers to search for and identify genes of interest for their experiments. Subsequently, they test how altering the expression of these genes affects cell placement. Thousands of fruit fly papers are added and summarized in FlyBase each year. Without FlyBase, Berg cautioned that researchers and clinicians could struggle to keep pace and miss crucial connections regarding specific genes.
Researchers from the Undiagnosed Disease Network employ FlyBase to determine whether pediatric genetic mutations contribute to rare, unknown diseases. They identify genetic mutations in patients and compare those with previous studies of those genes in flies. FlyBase also offers crowdfunding support on its website. “Given the importance of FlyBase to the broader U.S. and international scientific research community,” stated James Chisholm, spokesman for the Faculty of Arts at Harvard University. Two staff members from Harvard have already been laid off from FlyBase positions, with six more slated for layoffs in late September and early October, according to Perimon. “If we can’t retain key personnel, it’ll be very difficult to get people back with the knowledge necessary to keep the database operational,” Perimon remarked. “That would mark the end of FlyBase as we know it.”
Funding disruptions threaten plans to relocate FlyBase data to a new long-term home called the Genome Resource Alliance. The fruit fly, along with rats, mice, and worms, is one of several common “model organisms” used in labs to build the foundation for understanding human biology. The National Institutes of Health has allocated $5 million annually since 2017 to merge several databases, including FlyBase, WormBase, and Mouse Genome databases. Each of these contains information that human health researchers can cross-reference to study genes critical to human health more effectively. “If you’re studying human genes and need to access all existing information, you must visit all of these websites. I want one-stop shopping,” said Paul Sternberg, a professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology. The alliance’s budget expired on June 30, and Sternberg noted that they are awaiting a reclamation decision from the NIH. He mentioned that the funding disruption at FlyBase represents a new and unexpected challenge. “We need to move quickly, but with our staff and energy dwindling, we are at risk,” Sternberg expressed. “We can’t afford any additional obstacles.”
FlyBase had planned to merge with the Alliance in 2029. Now, Calvi and others are advocating for an accelerated merger before FlyBase’s financial runway disappears. Any donations the organization is soliciting are aimed at helping cover operational costs. “So far, we’ve raised under $100,000,” Calvi stated regarding the crowdfunding efforts. “We likely need a million.”
Source: www.nbcnews.com
