Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 22, 2026
Assessing the Cellular Immune Response of the Fruit Fly, Drosophila melanogaster, Using an In Vivo Phagocytosis Assay
Published on: April 10, 2019
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster unfolds the secrets of innate immunity
1Department of Pediatrics, Tampere University Hospital, Institute of Biomedical Technology and BioMediTech, University of Tampere, Finland. mika.ramet@uta.fi
Unlabelled:
In 2011, the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was rewarded, in part, for research on the Drosophila immune response. The research described the role of the Drosophila Toll receptor in antifungal resistance, and the subsequent characterization of Toll-like receptors in mammals reshaped our understanding of the immune system. This review summarizes the potential of the Drosophila model and describes the path that has lead Drosophila to become an important model to study immunity.
Conclusion:
Drosophila melanogaster has been one of the most fruitful models to study innate immunity.
