Department of Biology

IU Bloomington is a world leader in Drosophila (fruit fly) research. The Department of Biology maintains three federally funded centers essential to the research. We were excited to show off the facilities and labs to IU President Pamela Whitten during her visit on September 6.

• The Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC) propagates and distributes over 80,000 genetically unique fly strains and typically ships 220,000 samples to 50 countries every year.
• The Drosophila Genomic Resource Center (DGRC) is a repository for materials used in biotechnology research with flies. It maintains 1.3 million DNA clones and 245 fly cell lines. It shipped 2,500 samples to labs in 30 countries in FY22.
• FlyBase is a multi-university consortium that curates information about Drosophila research and presents it online. During 2021, there were 10.4 million page views by users around the world. The IU Bloomington team focuses on computer development for the public website.

The genes and physiology of flies are remarkably similar to those in humans, making it possible for Drosophila research to uncover the cellular basis for many human diseases—leading to better medical treatments. Nearly 4,000 biomedical labs worldwide use Drosophila. U.S. federal funding agencies alone spend a half billion dollars each year to support Drosophila research.