For more than a century, the humble fruit fly has paved the way for many critical scientific breakthroughs. <\/p>\n
This tiny insect helped researchers figure out that X-rays can cause genetic mutations. That genes are passed on from parent to child through chromosomes<\/a>. That a gene called period<\/a> helps our bodies keep time \u2014 and that disruptions to that internal clock can lead to jet lag and increased risk for neurological and metabolic diseases. <\/p>\n Those discoveries, along with nearly 90,000 other studies, are part of a key online database called FlyBase that researchers routinely use to help them more quickly design new experiments. These tests explore the underlying causes of disease and could help with the development of new treatments. Science builds on prior insights, and a handy repository of past advances serves as kindling for future discoveries. <\/p>\n The website receives about 770,000 page views each month from scientists working around the world on developing personalized therapies<\/a> for rare cancers, modeling human neurodegenerative diseases<\/a> and screening drug candidates for conditions like Alzheimer\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, that critical resource is on the brink of layoffs that endanger its future and ability to make research more efficient. <\/p>\n This spring, the <\/strong>Trump administration, as part of its broader $2.2 billion funding cuts at Harvard University, rescinded a grant used to maintain FlyBase. <\/p>\n \u201cI use FlyBase every single day. It\u2019s so essential,\u201d said Celeste Berg, a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington, who is not part of the team that operates FlyBase. \u201cWhat we know about human genes and how they function comes almost completely from model systems like drosophila.\u201d <\/p>\n Humans share about 60% of our genes with fruit flies, also known by their scientific name Drosophila melanogaster.<\/p>\n FlyBase\u2019s now-uncertain future highlights just how interconnected and interdependent research efforts are and how the effects of funding cuts to one institution can ripple worldwide. More than 4,000 labs use FlyBase.<\/p>\n Harvard was receiving about $2 million a year in federal funding to maintain FlyBase, which was the vast majority of the website\u2019s total operating budget. But the University of New Mexico, Indiana University and the University of Cambridge in England are partners that help Harvard manage FlyBase and are beneficiaries, too.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not just affecting Harvard,\u201d said Brian Calvi, a professor of biology at Indiana University, who is part of the FlyBase management team. \u201cThe ripple effect is to the international biomedical research community.\u201d <\/p>\n Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences rescued FlyBase with interim funding, but that support will cease in October, according to Norbert Perrimon, a professor of developmental biology at Harvard Medical School. <\/p>\n A judge earlier this month ordered the Trump administration to restore funding<\/a> to Harvard researchers who lost grants, but money has not begun to flow to FlyBase, Perrimon said. The administration has promised to appeal the decision, which could halt the flow of funds. <\/p>\n The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health, declined to comment.<\/p>\n The Transmitter, a neuroscience news site, first reported about layoffs at FlyBase<\/a>. The Harvard Crimson reported about the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences\u2019 decision not to continue with interim funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n Calvi said the FlyBase grant provided full or partial salary for eight people at Harvard, three at Indiana, five at Cambridge and one at the University of New Mexico. Both Indiana and Cambridge were able to secure funds to keep their portion of the program operating into next year. The New Mexico position ended in August. <\/p>\n FlyBase, which has been operating since 1992, has received federal support for more than three decades. It curates and summarizes research papers, organizes findings about particular genes, and catalogs information about fruit flies that have been modified genetically to tease apart how certain genes guide normal development. <\/p>\n Fruit flies are among the most important animal models for biomedical research because scientists have been able to map their genomes and brains. They\u2019re also relatively easy and cheap to handle. <\/p>\n Berg, the genome sciences professor and avid FlyBase user, studies human development and how cells form organs. FlyBase allows her to search and identify genes of interest for experiments. She then tests how changing the expression of those genes affects the arrangement of cells. <\/p>\n Every year, thousands of fruit fly papers are added to FlyBase and summarized. Without FlyBase, Berg said researchers and clinicians would struggle to keep up and could miss key connections about particular genes. <\/p>\n