In this Cornell Research article, Nilay Yapici shares her genetic model organism and its use in understanding food perception and food intake.
“Nilay Yapici, Neurobiology and Behavior, is using a genetic model organism, the fly (Drosophila melanogaster), to understand the fundamental principles of how the brain integrates the sensory percept of food with the sensation of hunger to regulate food intake on the level of molecules, cells, and circuits," the story says. "Flies are an excellent model to investigate these processes because they have 1000-fold fewer neurons in the brain than mice, and yet they still show hunger states and specific food intake control remarkably similar to those in vertebrates.”
