Drosophila melanogaster as a Model Organism to Facilitate Rare Disease Diagnosis and Therapeutic Research

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide accounting for around 10 million deaths in 2020. Cancer is caused by abnormal growth of cells in any part of the body. Genetic causes of cancer can be due to mutations in the genes. Rare mutations in genes show rare types of tumors like Neurofibromatosis and Tuberous sclerosis. The study of model organisms has been pivotal in understanding the causes of various diseases. The studies involve a variety of different methods and out of them the WES (Whole Exome Sequencing) model of research is the most common. Herein lies the future of integrating human genomics with studies in model organisms. It is essential to maintain and expand the current Drosophila melanogaster databases this houses the genomic, molecular, and cell biological knowledge on the organism. This can be done by collaboration with the NIH. The understanding of the characteristics of cancer cells plays an important role in terms of how to go about with research tumor and normal host cell motility plays a multifaceted role in the metastasis of cancer by allowing the tumor to spread to distant organs, migrate to blood and lymphatic arteries, breach the basement membrane, and escape from the original tumor. The ability to migrate towards favourable environments is a fundamental and evolutionarily conserved cellular behaviour from unicellular organisms to humans. Both normal and cancer cells migrate using diverse modes including amoeboid, mesenchymal, epithelial, collective and individual. Simple model organisms also exhibit these diverse modes of motility and offer experimental advantages such as low cost, amenability to large-scale genetic and pharmacological screening and live imaging of cells interacting within their native environments. This article goes into detail about how drosophila can be used as a model organism to study various diseases such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinsons disease, Prions diseases, Polyglutamine disorders, Huntington's disease, Machado-Josephs disease, Kennedy disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Leigh Disease, Nieman-Pick Disease and a few rare tumours