Translating from fruit flies, mice to humans isn’t always straightforward

Before researchers can safely advance findings onto human subjects, they first need to see how it behaves in a complete living system—not just in isolated cells in a dish. That’s where model organisms come in. These are species like mice, fruit flies, or zebrafish that serve as stand-ins for humans, allowing researchers to observe how treatments or biological processes play out across an entire organism rather than in a single cell type; they lend a better understanding of human biology and diseases without complications that come with human subjects. For example, these model organisms enable researchers to perform in vivo studies—research where functional experiments, disease modeling and drug testing are conducted on living organisms.

While model organisms are essential for biomedical research, choosing the right model is complex, and finding equivalent molecular components across species poses challenges.

EEB core faculty Ingo Braasch and PhD student Hao Yuan at MSU and colleagues at the University of Colorado Anschutz (CU Anschutz) have compiled a comprehensive and extensive survey of computational tools that are helping make these choices more accurately. 

Read the full story by David DeBonis at the University of Colorado Anschutz