# Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center at Indiana University

> **NIH NIH P40** · TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $352,166

## Abstract

Project Summary
The Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC) collects, curates, maintains and distributes strains of the fly
Drosophila melanogaster to support the biomedical research community. It is the largest and most
comprehensive Drosophila stock collection in the world, and it is central to the success of many research
projects—including over 820 active NIH grants. The COVID pandemic has caused several aspects of BDSC
operations to suffer, and the funding requested here will serve to repair damage and restore normal
productivity in the areas of information system management, quality control and research by engaging the
temporary services of available professionals within Indiana University. First, contracted computer
programming services will restore appropriate progress to an ongoing project transitioning BDSC information
management to a web-based platform. Unfortunately, this project was slowed irreparably by diverting effort of
BDSC scientists to disaster management. These services will help push the project to completion before
legacy software critical to all BDSC functions is no longer usable. Second, short-term employees will allow the
BDSC to redeploy the effort of experienced stockkeeping staff to catch up on the surveillance of stocks for
cross-contamination or genetic breakdown that was suspended when COVID restrictions mandated only
essential work on campus. Identifying problematic stocks is critical to assuring that the samples investigators
receive are trustworthy. Finally, an experienced technician will devote effort to a resource-development project
generating strains needed for investigating intestinal epithelial cell functions. The parent grant supports the
identification and characterization of GAL4 and split-GAL4 drivers that allow targeted expression of UAS
transgenes in specific midgut cells, but the pandemic prevented the expected rate of progress. Specifically, it
delayed the introduction of new, more-effective drivers to scientists investigating the development and
functions of enteroendocrine cells, a model peptide hormone-secreting cell type with human cognates.
Altogether, these interventions will repair COVID-inflicted operational deficiencies and allow the BDSC to
provide services to biomedical researchers at the high level of quality that existed before the pandemic.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10396349
- **Project number:** 3P40OD018537-08S1
- **Recipient organization:** TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** KEVIN R COOK
- **Activity code:** P40 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $352,166
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2014-08-15 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10396349

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10396349, Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center at Indiana University (3P40OD018537-08S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10396349. Licensed CC0.

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