Biological and biomedical research using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism
has gained recognition through several Nobel prizes within the last 100 years. Drosophila …

Glomerular disorders are a predominant cause of chronic kidney diseases and end-stage
renal failure. Especially podocytes, epithelial cells which represent the outermost part of the …

Renal diseases are a growing health burden, and innovative models to study their
pathomechanisms are greatly needed. Here, we highlight how the fruit fly Drosophila …

Although the genetic basis of many kidney diseases is being rapidly elucidated, their
experimental study remains problematic owing to the lack of suitable models. The fruitfly …

Our research group has developed a reliable functional readout for Drosophila nephrocytes
in vivo and established an RNA interference system to identify genes that are required for …

The evolution of specialized excretory cells is a cornerstone of the metazoan radiation, and
the basic tasks performed by Drosophila and human renal systems are similar. The …

The difficulty in accessing mammalian nephrons in vivo hinders the study of podocyte
biology. The Drosophila nephrocyte shares remarkable similarities to the glomerular …

Glomerular disorders are a major cause of end-stage renal disease and effective therapies
are often lacking. Nephrocytes are considered to be part of the Drosophila excretory system …

All animals must excrete the waste products of metab-olism and maintain a constant body
composition despite changes in the external environment. In higher animals, these functions …

Drosophila nephrocytes have been an object of study for more than a century. They were
named by Bruntz, based on observations of cells around the heart, the central nervous …