GREENWOOD, South Carolina — Research at the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics is revealing new insights into how genes impact drug use and addiction through a novel study of susceptibility to the effects of cocaine and methamphetamine in fruit flies.
The research has been published by PLOS Genetics, titled “Genetics of Cocaine and Methamphetamine Consumption and Preference in Drosophila melanogaster.” The manuscript’s senior authors are geneticists Trudy Mackay and Robert Anholt of the Center for Human Genetics. The co-authors are Chad Highfill, Brandon Baker and Stephenie Stevens.
The study assesses naturally occurring variation in drug self-administration and change in this behavior on repeated exposure using Drosophila melanogaster, a common fruit fly.
