The BDSC collects, maintains and distributesDrosophila melanogaster strains for research.
Why fruit flies?
Drosophila melanogaster is:
• used to study complex biological processes, including many directly relevant tohuman health and disease
• a versatile and elegant model organism with excellent genetic manipulability, ease of culture, and low cost
• unmatched for its genetic technologies enabling experiments that are difficult to do in other organisms
Why the BDSC?
The BDSC is the largest and most comprehensive collection of Drosophila strains in the world. As a centralized resource, we enable researchers to focus on discovery by providing:
• a wide variety of sophisticated genetic tools
• a common resource to improve scientific rigor and reproducibility
• stable maintenance of strains with effective quality control and the benefits of economies of scale
New (and Newish) Stocks
We obtained ~4400 Janelia FlyLight split-GAL4 combo stocks in 2023. These pictures from the Janelia FlyLight project show the ability of the split-GAL4 system to drive expression in, and therefore allow the study of, very specific neurons in the adult fly brain. SeeMeissner et al (2024) andour split-GAL4 combo page for more information.
The limestone fly carving pictured above was created by Amy Brier - http://www.amybrier.com.