Illustration by Catarina Moreno (www.catarinamoreno.com)
Biomedical research is fundamental for society and global development, as the pandemic we’re currently experiencing has reminded us. But this public health crisis also highlights the acute disparities between the scientific research landscapes of different countries around the world.
DrosAfrica is a registered charity that aims to promote the development of biomedical research in Africa by training and establishing a connected community of African researchers. By running workshops with world-leading researchers at African host institutions, DrosAfrica helps African researchers to acquire scientific expertise and research skills for studying human disease using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system.
We had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Isabel Palacios, a researcher and lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and co-founder of DrosAfrica. In the video below, Palacios speaks about DrosAfrica and its success in bringing together researchers from all over Africa.
Palacios co-founded DrosAfrica with Dr Maria Dolores Martin-Bermudo (Andalusian Center for Development Biology, Spain) and Marta Vicente-Crespo (Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa, Kenya) inspired by the success of Drosophila research in advancing scientific research in Spain, a country that only a few decades ago had limited scientific resources. Similarly, scientific research and higher education in Africa are underdeveloped due to poor infrastructure, and a lack of funding and skilled workforce.
Drosophila is a powerful model system for studying human diseases, including those affecting African countries, such as malaria. Fruit flies grow and multiply quickly, are very cheap to maintain, and have about 70% of the genes causing human disease- there couldn’t be a more picture-perfect model system to study biomedical questions in countries with limited economic resources.
DrosAfrica has trained dozens of scientists from many African countries including South Sudan, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda. Some of these researchers have already established their own laboratories using fruit flies, and have began training the next generation of African biomedical researchers. In the long term, DrosAfrica aims to not only continue providing training and support to the African Drosophila research community, but also to help African countries set up new research institutes with laboratories focused on using “simple” model organisms to study biomedical problems.
During the interview, Palacios also speaks about her own research using fruit flies. Her lab uses a combination of cell biology and biophysics approaches to study the cytoskeleton, a cellular structure involved in many functions, like controlling cell division and maintaining cell shape. She stresses that fruit flies can be used to answer most biological questions and to model human disease, although her lab focuses on understanding how the cytoskeleton is organised in healthy cells.
How does she juggle her lab, teaching, running a charity, and family life? Palacios mentions that her love for science, a strong support network, and good organisation skills are key for her success.
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