The use of Drosophila melanogaster as a model for studying human disease is well established, reflected by the steady increase in both the number and proportion of fly papers describing human disease models in recent years. In order to improve both the visibility and accessibility of human disease model research, FlyBase has recently begun producing Human Disease Model Reports.
These reports provide an integrated informational resource regarding specific diseases and fly disease models and their potential impacts on translational research. Each report presents background information on a specific disease, including links to outside resources, most notably Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM®); a tabulation of related disease subtypes; information concerning relationships between human disease-linked genes and their fly orthologs; and a summary of experimental data and results using fruit flies. We have also incorporated relevant data described elsewhere in FlyBase, including physical interactions, Disease Ontology annotations of alleles, and genetic reagents. These reports are specifically designed to be accessible to non-fly researchers in order to promote collaboration across model organism communities working in translational science, while also providing a convenient entry point for Drosophila researchers interested in disease model systems..