What do humans have in common with fruit flies? According to Chatham-Kent native Taylor Lidster, a great deal, at least as the stomach turns.
Lidster, 23, is a Master’s student at Brock University, and is researching fruit flies as part of her Cell and Molecular Biology studies.
“I do research on fruit flies, as they are very similar to humans as far as genes, particularly genes that cause diseases,” she said.
Her area of focus is the gastro-intestinal system.
“I study the gut and inflammation – I figure out which genes cause disturbances in the gut. We look at genes and the signalling pathways that are involved in inflammation, including the formation of tumours, and what pathways are involved in maintaining a healthy and stable gut.
“I’m able to see things at high magnification and am able to look at the overall structure and compare it to healthy flies. We can see what things are going wrong. And this translates directly to humans.”
Lidster has made a one-minute video to explain her research. And she’d like you to watch it at www.discover.brocku.ca/fly.
In fact, the video is entered in a contest put on by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
The top 75 entries, of which Lidster’s is one, moved onto the video stage, where each entrant makes a 60-second video and posts it to YouTube. Each view from the public over a three-week period constitutes a vote for that video.
The top 25 vote getters enter the final phase of the competition. Lidster said a judging panel chooses the top 15. Scholarship money is $2,000 minimum for each of the top 15.
Lidster needs your help to make the top 25.
“I don’t have a huge following on social media. I’m not a social media gal. I have Facebook and that’s about it,” she said.
That’s why she reached out to hometown media to help get the word out about her effort.
You have until March 2 to view her video.
The purpose of the video is to be able to explain one’s research to the general public, Lidster said.
“It’s so interesting. People don’t think we’re that similar. But 75% of our disease-causing genes can be found in the fruit fly,” she said.
That’s right; we have a great deal in common with a flying insect.
Lidster said working with the tiny flies is pretty simple in terms of laboratory experiments.
“Fruit flies are so much easier to use than mice and rats. You can use hundreds of flies in a trial. It’s a great model organism to use to study human diseases,” she said.
Competing in contests of science is nothing new to Lidster. During her time here in Chatham-Kent, especially while attending Ecole secondaire de Pain Court, she was a regular top shelf contender at science fairs. In fact, she represented Chatham-Kent at three Canada-wide science fairs as well as one international science fair in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Lidster hopes her future lies in medical science. She’d like to get her PhD and use it to help save lives.
“I aspire to go into cancer research in some form,” she said. “Maybe in the future I’ll seek to become a professor.”
