Small beginnings can have huge potential benefits.

SickKids is sustaining this tradition with its New Ideas Program, which provides an outlet to test “out-of-the box” thinking. Once an idea is formed, an important next step is finding a donor to support it. Many program initiations, the hiring of a bright student or new ideas depend on the generosity of donors, who bring their own vision and confidence to risk-taking initiatives. Thanks to their charitable kindness, SickKids is able to encourage its scientists to think, “what if?” and reap the benefits of the extraordinary work that follows.

Once such idea turned into a study called the “Fat Fly” project.

The fruit fly – a model that may help us counter childhood obesity

Gabrielle Boulianne is a geneticist who uses fruit flies as a model system for understanding the development and function of the nervous system. Her novel idea was to use this model to identify genes involved in obesity and diabetes, a growing health concern in children. Environmental factors certainly play a role in causing obesity, but so do genes. Put two people on the same diet and one will have a greater disposition to gain weight than the other – that’s the impact of genes.

About 70 per cent of genes that cause disease in humans are also found in fruit flies, so it is likely that if there is an obesity gene, the fruit fly will have it. But how to identify the genes?

Dr. Boulianne had to first develop a screen for identifying ‘fat flies’ and ‘lean flies’ – because you can’t spot an obese fruit fly looking through a microscope. However, the obese, both human and flies, have high levels of triglycerides. Dr. Boulianne and colleagues analyzed the test group of fruit flies for triglycerides, looking for mutant flies either super fat or really skinny. Using this approach, they were able to identify several genes that lead to obesity in flies. They are now screening chemical compounds and have identified two drugs that might make the fat flies leaner again.

This has led to a five-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant for the “fat fly” project, which is good news indeed! Their first paper is in preparation (as of July-August, 2009), and Dr. Boulianne will also write a review article on using fruit flies to study human obesity. Future steps include tests in the lab and eventually, clinical trials.

Dr. Boulianne has turned her novel idea into a serious scientific study that could one day benefit humans – especially children suffering from obesity.

If you weren't able to make it down to SickKids on Saturday for the Science Rendezvous, we've put together a few videos of the researchers and what they were up to. Have a look, enjoy and we hope to see you next year.

Also, have a look at the SickKids Research Institute Kids Science program. Kids Science helps "at-risk" youth make informed post-secondary educational and career choices in the fields of science and technology. Many of the researchers participating in the Science Rendezvous are also part of the Kids Science program.