A few years back I got connected to Perlstein Lab, a startup in the Bay Area developing drugs for so-called orphan diseases. When I was in San Francisco in May this year, I stopped by to chat about automation and fruit flies (which they use among several other model organisms for screening potential drug compounds). Although not a drosophilist, Dr. Nina di Primo is a senior scientist at Perlstein Lab, and she’s also the editor of BioCoder, a quarterly newsletter about biotech, DIY bio, and everything related. After my visit earlier this year, she invited me to write an article about my FlySorter progress. I did, and now it’s out:
There’s some overlap with this blog, but also plenty new in the article, notably the development of the fly dispenser. With beta testing ongoing, I also posted some photo & video of the new device over on the FlySorter site in anticipation of a bigger launch in the coming weeks. Check it out and let me know what you think!