Fly Genetics/Molecular Biology

Combining molecular cloning techniques and the versatile genetic toolkit in Drosophila, we generate and use mutant and transgenic fly lines to manipulate and report gene expression and neuronal activity in specific area in the fly nervous system.

Live/Confocal imaging

Using confocal microscopy and fluorescent reporters such as GCaMPs, CAMPARI, and synaptopHluorin, we monitor neuronal activity in target areas of the ex vivo fly brain.

Behaviour assays

We use both DAM (infrared beam break) and DART (video-tracking) systems to record daily locomotor activity and sleep in various Drosophila species. We also use the DART system to probe the depth of sleep.

in vivo luciferase assay

By measuring the bioluminescence emitted from transgenic flies that carry derivatives of firefly luciferase, we can easily monitor in vivo circadian clock gene expression and intracellular calcium concentrations.

Above are the well-established techniques used in the lab and we are currently expanding our methods to include CRISPR-based gene editing, RNASeq, Electroretinogram and Optogenetics.