Guest Editors
Olivia Corcoran
University of East London, London, U.K.
Starting with in vitro drug metabolism at Pfizer-Sandwich, UK, Corcoran achieved her Glaxo-funded PhD with Professor Jeremy Nicholson at Imperial College London, followed by GD Searle and Pharmacia-salaried postdocs, before joining Bruker Biospin in California as National Flow NMR manager. At King’s College, London, she held the Maplethorpe Fellowship in Pharmacy, investigating adverse drug reactions for pain medicines. Since joining University of East London, Professor Corcoran has supervised a dozen graduate students in analytical sciences, such as metabolomics. Her Medicines Research Group focuses on health inequalities aligned with UN sustainable development goals. Her research spans the neurosciences of lung & gut health, and most recently, addictive behaviours, collaborating with Drs. Casalotti and Ayoub on Drosophila. Throughout her industrial career, her key motivation has remained reducing and refining animals in research.
Samir Ayoub
University of East London, London, U.K.
Dr Ayoub is a Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of East London. Samir acquired his PhD at the William Harvey Research Institute, London, followed by an Early Career Post-doctoral Fellowship awarded by the Leverhulme Trust; during which he was also a visiting scientist at Professor Daniel Simmons’s lab at Brigham Young University, Utah, USA. Dr Ayoub was subsequently a Research Associate at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London. His research focus has been on the pharmacology of paracetamol and the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in inflammation, pain, and thermoregulation and has been the first to provide substantial evidence implicating cyclooxygenase variant enzymes in mediating the thermoregulatory and analgesic actions of paracetamol. Dr Ayoub continues in pain research, as well as elucidating the role of interleukin-4 and cycloogenase-2 in the resolution of inflammation and macrophage polarisation. Recently, he has collaborated with colleagues at the University of East London in research aimed at elucidating mechanisms involved in the development of addiction behaviours to alcohol in Drosophila.
Stefano Casalotti
University of East London, London, U.K.
Dr Stefano Casalotti is an honorary lecturer at the University of East London and director of BiosearLab CIC. He completed his PhD in neuroscience in Professor Barnard’s lab at Imperial College London and MRC, Cambridge, UK. He progressed to a post-doc at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., USA before taking a lecturer position at Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. Returning to the UK, he taught at University College London, Birkbeck and University of East London. Dr. Casalotti is still associated with the University of East London, and has founded the community interest company BiosearLab which delivers R&D services to health providers and academic groups, while also providing training for bio-scientists. Stefano’s scientific interests within neuroscience have more recently focused on molecular mechanisms of alcohol-induced changes in gene expression and how they can be altered pharmacologically using the fruit fly Drosophila as a model organism.
Collection Overview
The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is widely used to model behaviors, such as learning, addiction, stress, sleep, aggression, etc. Advantages of using Drosophila include inexpensive maintenance and lack of animal license regulations. Moreover, a huge number of genetic variants are available, and more can be developed through breeding. These genetic modifications, in combination with pharmacological treatment, also allow the dissection of the molecular mechanisms that drive responses to external or internal stimuli. Drosophila behaviors can be observed and quantified both manually and in automated recording systems (ethomics), allowing large number of repeats. However, one must consider whether scoring fly behavior when observed in groups can truly capture the decision making of individual flies. Can one exclude flies simply following the behavior of other flies? In order to distinguish these behaviors, it is important to carefully consider the apparatus used, the specific methodology, and how the controls are used. These details are not always clearly stated or addressed in the literature. The aim of this collection is to specifically investigate, across established and newly developed methods, to what extent Drosophila behaviors tested in groups truly represent the action and decision making of individual flies, and/or whether it is necessary to switch to methodologies where flies are tested individually. This collection of different methodologies, re-analyzed under this perspective, provide an enhanced understanding of fly behavior, and should encourage better standardization of methodologies used in different laboratories.
