Flaviano ('Flav') Giorgini is Lecturer in Mammalian Genetics in the Genetics Department at the University of Leicester, UK. His research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease.

In this short film, Dr Giorgini explains how he and his research team use Baker's yeast Saccaromyces cerevisiae and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as model organisms in the quest for understanding of what goes wrong at a cellular level in Huntington's Disease and how this knowledge can be used to develop novel therapeutic compounds.

This film is part of a collection of resources on the use of model organisms in medical research produced by Dr Chris Willmott and Professor Andrew Fry of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Leicester. Funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the GENIE Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, these videos show how the use of invertebrate species such as yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) can be applicable to human medicine.