• Vivid Biology is on sabbatical until 2028
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Vivid Biology is on sabbatical until 2028
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Vivid Biology is on pause from 2025 to 2028. This is because Claudia is living in Madrid, Spain.

She is still taking freelance work as a sole trader, send a message using the button above.

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Embracing Complexity: A Fly-to-Bedside Approach to Cancer Therapies
Embracing Complexity: A Fly-to-Bedside Approach to Cancer Therapies
Embracing Complexity: A Fly-to-Bedside Approach to Cancer Therapies
2017
Ross Cagan

Summary of the science

Different species can share genes and species that are more related to each other share more genes (e.g. humans and chimps compared to humans and flowers). The fruit fly and humans share numerous fundamental genes, with approximately 75% of disease-causing genes in humans also present in the fruit fly. The Cagan lab makes use of this similarity and intends to understand how diseases work, by using treatments on fruit flies and using the information gained to tailor treatments in humans.

About the research

The Cagan lab is focused on applying genomics for therapeutic purposes and developing Drosophila and organoid model systems to understand the interplay between diseases and treatments. They investigate cancerous diseases and inherited genetic disorders. By modelling how these diseases function in complex models, they can better understand how they may work in humans under clinical settings and their work has already contributed to the development of existing chemotherapeutics.

About the illustration

The aim of the lab is to exploit the genetic similarities between humans and Drosophila. To highlight this idea of genetic similarity, we decided to use a Venn diagram made of DNA as the central motif of the illustration, with human and fly drawings encapsulated within to show them as model systems in the research.