Partner offer: Drosophila disease models for in vivo drug screening, repurposing and target validation

We are seeking a consortium preparing a Horizon Europe Health proposal that would benefit from Drosophila-based functional validation and in vivo testing of therapeutic candidates.

Based at INCLIVA Health Research Institute in Valencia, Spain, I bring extensive expertise in Drosophila genetics, neuroscience, metabolic signalling, neuron–glia communication, behavioural analysis and in vivo imaging. I propose to contribute a dedicated experimental task linking disease mechanisms to compound prioritisation and therapeutic target validation.

PROPOSED CONTRIBUTION

• Disease modelling and assay development: establish or adapt genetically defined Drosophila models and select robust, disease-relevant readouts for intervention testing.

• In vivo compound screening and drug repurposing: design and perform focused screens of candidate compounds or selected drug libraries provided through the consortium, assessing phenotypic rescue, dose response and organism-level tolerability.

• Functional characterisation of treatment effects: combine behavioural and physiological endpoints with molecular and metabolic measurements. Depending on the model, readouts could include locomotor performance, survival, learning and memory, cellular energy status and redox balance.

• Target validation and mechanism of action: use tissue-specific genetic perturbations to test causal pathways, identify the cellular sites of drug action and assess whether treatment effects depend on the proposed target.

PARTICULAR AREAS OF INTEREST

Neurodegeneration; neurological diseases ; mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction; neuron–glia interactions; cognitive impairment; and conserved disease mechanisms amenable to genetic and pharmacological investigation in Drosophila.

EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION TO THE CONSORTIUM

A prioritised set of candidate compounds or therapeutic targets, supported by reproducible in vivo functional evidence and mechanistic insight, to inform subsequent testing in complementary human-relevant systems.

PARTNERS SOUGHT

We welcome contact from prospective coordinators, academic and clinical teams, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and computational drug discovery groups seeking an experimental partner. Particularly relevant partners would bring candidate compounds, drug libraries, human disease models, patient-derived data or complementary translational expertise.

We are available to discuss a focused task or work package on in vivo screening, functional validation and mechanistic characterisation, tailored to the scientific objectives and scope of the call.