Emergency fund to rescue FlyBase Curation

FlyBase, the global database for fruit fly genetics, is about to lose key staff because a major US funder suddenly pulled its support. This matters because the fruit fly *Drosophila* is one of the most powerful tools in fundamental biology. Researchers use it to study everything from how genes control development to the mechanisms of human disease. FlyBase is the central repository that organises and curates all this genetic and molecular data, making it searchable and reliable. Without expert curators, the database degrades, and the entire research community loses access to a critical piece of infrastructure. The emergency funds will keep the two most experienced curators on the Cambridge team in post. This preserves irreplaceable knowledge about how the database works and ensures that current curation continues without interruption. The grant buys time for the project leaders to find a new, stable source of long-term funding. If successful, this rescue prevents a sudden gap in a quietly essential research service. It keeps the global *Drosophila* community functioning, which in turn sustains the fundamental science that often leads to unexpected medical and biotechnological advances.