Saikumar, J. et al. PNAS https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003909117 (2020)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) triggers a chronic and progressive neurodegeneration that increases the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Rodent models have been widely used to understand TBI pathology and identify potential neuroprotective agents, but drugs developed in animal models have all failed in human trials.

A study describes a new model of TBI in Drosophila, in which traumatic injury was inflicted to the fly head using a piezoelectric actuator. This closed head model of TBI recapitulates features characteristic of mammalian TBI, including brain degeneration. By allowing large-scale genetic and pharmacological screens, this model offers new perspectives to understand TBI pathology and identify efficient neuroprotective drugs.