Prof receives funding from March of Dimes
ERIN PIROUTEK
Fruit flies and humans may not seem to have anything in common, but David Hyde, associate professor of biological sciences, hopes that the study of fruit flies will lead to new ways of treating human disease.
The March of Dimes, a non-profit health organization dedicated to preventing birth defects and infant mortality, recently gave Hyde a three-year grant to study a gene in Drosophila, a type of fruit fly, that could have significance to neuronal and neuromuscular dysfunction in humans.
"The project deals with a Drosophila mutant that fails to hatch from the embryo," said Hyde. "There is a defect in the neuron stimulating the muscle."
Hyde says that he hopes he will be able to identify the fly gene and the protein encoded within it and determine the function of that protein. The long-range goals of the project are to identify whether the fly gene correlates to any sort of neuromuscular gene in humans, said Hyde.
"It's likely that there is going to be a human counterpart,"
he explains.
Hyde said, however, that just because a correlating gene may be found it doesn't necessarily cause the same defect in humans as in flies.
"The difficulty is going to be, where we see paralysis in flies, the abnormality in humans could be different," he said. For example, the absence of the gene in humans could cause prenatal death.
In addition to the potential benefits for public health, the project can help to strengthen both the academic reputation and undergraduate education at Notre Dame.
"Any time you can generate research support from a nationally recognized private agency it helps raise the visibility of the research that's going on at that institution," Hyde said.
The current funding could have future research benefits. The grant from the March of Dimes will be spent purchasing equipment and paying research assistants.
"You can pay graduates and post-docs; you also get more done; you can apply for more funding. It's a mushroom effect," Hyde said.
While most research is undertaken by graduate students, this project is one that will enable undergrads to benefit, engaging them in laboratory research as well.
"I think that any time you can get outside funding it helps the undergraduates immensely," Hyde said.
He expressed hope that once the gene is cloned, undergraduates will have the opportunity to research various aspects of the gene and the protein it encodes.
Undergraduates have already been a part of the project, which has been in progress for several years.
"We had undergraduates working on the original isolation of the mutation several years ago," said Hyde, noting that such work helps broaden the education of the undergraduates.
"Even if they don't want to go on to graduate school, it allows them to gain a little more breadth in their knowledge," he said.
Hyde has been a member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1988.
All News Stories for Tuesday, August 31, 1999
