DIALOGUES OF DISCOVERY

On January 21, 2010, Gerald M. Rubin director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus, presented a lecture “The Fly Brain and Yours—Closer Than You Think.” More than 250 attended the talk, which was the fifth in a series of public lectures at Janelia Farm called “Dialogues of Discovery.”

Rubin discussed how Janelia Farm scientists are working to solve one of biology's great mysteries: how nerve cells enable animals to perceive and respond to the world around them. Researchers often turn to fruit flies and other model organisms, such as roundworms and mice, to answer biology's most challenging questions. Mapping the neural circuitry behind fruit fly behavior is no small job—but it's easier than untangling the human brain's 100 billion neurons. Since many of the principles that guide brain activity are thought to be shared among animals, deciphering how model organisms' brains work helps demystify the human brain. An internationally recognized geneticist, Rubin led the publicly funded effort to sequence the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster genome. Rubin — who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences — was named the first director of HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Campus in 2003. At Janelia, Rubin directs scientific programs designed to speed the development and application of new tools for transforming the study of biology and medicine.