Over the past 15 years, Dr. William Quinn has been an active participant in the genetic dissection of memory. In well controlled behavioral experiments, Dr. Quinn and his colleagues have isolated mutant flies with specific deficits in associative learning and proceeded to characterize the molecular defects that underlie them. One of the advantages of the Drosophila as an experimental system is that it is "holistic"; the effect of molecular perturbations on behavior are observable in the intact animal. The work which will be pursued in the future concerns ways in which genes will be manipulated in order to evaluate the role of different proteins and enzymes in learning and memory in Drosophila. The approach presented by Dr. Quinn represents an original approach to the problem of understanding memory formation, and a unique wedding of cutting-edge molecular genetic techniques with solid detailed behavioral analysis.
