Cafe Science - The Conqueror Worm: What Model Organism Genetics Tells Us About Life March 8, 2010

The Conqueror Worm: What Model Organism Genetics Tells Us About Life
Neurogeneticist and Nobel Laureate Martin Chalfie

Thomas Hunt Morgan published the first paper using fruit flies for genetic experiments one hundred years ago. The use of a small number of organisms (often called model organisms) for genetic studies continues to this day to give insights into basic biological mechanisms and to provide a means of studying human disease. I will describe how genetic analysis using one model organism, the small round worm Caenorhabditis elegans, has broadened our understanding of development, nervous system function, and other biological processes as well as changed the way we study these processes in other organisms.