Drosophila sleep and circadian rhythm screening service for bioactive compound evaluation
Fee-for-service screening platform using Drosophila melanogaster to evaluate bioactives and botanical extracts for sleep and circadian effects. The TriKinetics DAM5H Activity Monitoring system delivers medium-throughput, whole-organism readouts including sleep architecture, circadian period, and rhythm power, offering a cost-effective alternative to mammalian sleep studies while retaining mechanistic relevance.
Overview
This service provides an external, fee-for-service capability for measuring sleep and circadian rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster using the TriKinetics DAM5H Activity Monitoring system. Designed for sponsors developing bioactives, nutraceuticals, or complex botanical extracts, the platform enables medium-throughput screening of compounds with direct relevance to sleep and circadian biology. By leveraging a whole-organism invertebrate model, the service bridges the gap between cell-based assays and costly rodent studies, delivering physiologically meaningful behavioural data at scale.
Technical specifications
- Assay platform: TriKinetics DAM5H Activity Monitoring system with infrared beam-break detection; each unit houses 32 flies
- Dosing method: Bioactives or complex botanical extracts incorporated directly into standard fly food, enabling testing of mixtures without purification
- Recording conditions: 12:12 light-dark (LD) or constant-dark (DD) protocols
- Measured outputs: total sleep, sleep bout number and duration, sleep latency, circadian period, rhythm amplitude and power (chi-square periodogram), and phase shift
- Throughput: hundreds of flies per compound with full biological replication
- Biological basis: Drosophila shares conserved molecular clock genes (period, timeless, Clock, cycle) and neurotransmitter/GPCR signalling underlying sleep with mammals, providing mechanistic translatability
- Deliverable: quantified sleep and circadian report per compound and dose
Technology readiness level
The DAM5H system is the field-standard platform for fly sleep and circadian research, with decades of peer-validated sensitivity to sedatives, stimulants, melatonergic agents, and clock modulators. The proposed validation plan begins with benchmarking against known reference compounds (Months 1–3), followed by pilot screening of sponsor bioactives (Months 3–6), rolling external screening at scale (Months 6–18), and extended mechanistic follow-up on priority hits (Months 18–24). The service is positioned for near-term deployment, with capacity expansion planned through additional DAM5H units to support parallel sponsor work.
About University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a comprehensive public research university and Russell Group member based in Nottingham, with campuses in China and Malaysia, enabling international collaboration and talent pipelines. Industry partners engage through an on-campus research and technology park that co-locates companies with university groups, plus shared-use facilities and pilot spaces for scale-up. Integration with a major NHS hospital system supports clinical trials and translation, while placements and professional programs connect companies with student and graduate talent. Research is supported by competitive funding from UKRI research councils and Innovate UK, with added support through NHS partnerships and European programs. A dedicated technology transfer office manages IP, licensing, and spinout formation.
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