‘Pavlov’s fruit flies’ studied in memory research
massey-university
Thu Mar 19 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
‘Pavlov’s fruit flies’ studied in memory research
Thursday, 19 March 2009, 11:03 am
Press Release: Massey University
Thursday, March 19, 2009
‘Pavlov’s fruit flies’ studied in memory research
A Massey researcher hopes to unravel the mystery of memories and how they are stored in the brain by studying fruit flies.
Dr Helen Fitzsimons says many memories are retained long-term, some over a whole lifetime, however little is known about the mechanism by which they remain stored despite constant protein turnover.
She has won a fellowship from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology to assist in her postdoctoral research – Holding onto our memories – the role of epigenetics in memory storage.
“This research will approach the study of learning and memory from a new angle, which is to study structural changes to chromosomes that occur during memory storage.”
Fruit flies, a model organism, will be used at first. “Fruit flies are ideal for studying learning and memory because they have been studied genetically for a hundred years now, so many genetic tools have been developed to study their development and brain function,” Dr Fitzsimons says. “The proteins known to be involved in learning and memory are relatively consistent between flies and humans, therefore they are very useful as a simple system to study memory.
“I’m using a well-established method to determine how well they learn and how well they remember. I expose them to two different odours, one at the same time as a mild electric shock is applied. Then they’re put in a T-shaped maze, which forces them to choose between the two odours. A fly with a good memory avoids the odour that was associated with the electric shock. It’s similar to Pavlov’s conditioning experiment with dogs.”
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Dr Fitzsimons will initially use this learning model to test whether genes involved in epigenetic modification of chromatin structure are involved in storage of memory. She hopes this will help to elucidate the molecular pathways involved in learning and memory.
Fellowship recipients are offered an annual stipend of up to $61,000 per year for three years, plus allowances for research costs and ongoing skills development, with each fellow eligible to receive a total of up to $277,500 over the three years. Dr Fitzsimons’ funding period begins in September and until then she is working with a repatriation fellowship from the Neurological Foundation.
Applications are assessed against criteria including the benefit to New Zealand and the ability of the research to deliver tangible results that can be implemented into viable products or processes.
Dr Fitzsimons completed her Master’s degree at Massey and has returned to carry out postdoctoral research after several years in the United States. She is working under the supervision of Associate Professor Max Scott in the Institute of Molecular Biosciences.
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