Fragile X and memory

Pretty far from human application, but noteworthy ...

Fruit Flies, Fragile X and Foolery: Scientific American Podcast:

University of Alberta researcher Francois Bolduc keeps 300,000 fruit flies in a basement laboratory. He discovered that disrupting one gene known as FMR1 in the flies’ brains can wipe out their long-term memory. What’s interesting for us is that damage to that gene in people is associated with learning and memory problems, epilepsy and autism. That constellation of traits is known as fragile X syndrome. Bolduc then worked on curing his forgetful flies—he found a class of drugs that reduces the activity of the FMR1 gene. And the insects were able to regain their memory...