Purpose Working in conjuncture with:
We are developing a system to evaluate Drosophila Melanogaster for locomotive activity to screen genes that may be related to such genetic disorders as Parkinson’s disease. Drosophila, or fruit fly, has a gene structure very similar to humans that make it ideal for such evaluations. The research lab at the New England Medical Center currently has a simple system in place to evaluate the flies. This Drosophila Activity Monitor (DAM) system consists of a tray of 32 small slender tubes fitted with food at one end and a stopper to prevent the fly from leaving the tube at the other. A laser beam runs across the center of that tube and it counts how many times the flies cross it. This essentially only measures the fly for one dimensional activity, limiting the analysis and inferences that can be derived from the data. We are designing a system that uses a camera and LabView software to capture 2D motion of the fruit fly for analysis. The short term goal is to create a system that will study 6 flies for several hours and analyze the flies for various traits associated with their locomotion. |
