Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a global health crisis, with Indonesia ranking fifth worldwide in the number of affected adults. To address this challenge, Indonesian researchers led by Professor Firzan Nainu from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Hasanuddin University, together with Mukarram Mudjahid and Nadila Pratiwi Latada from the Unhas Fly Research Group (UFRG) , and Program-specific Assistant Professor Youdiil Ophinni (The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research), turned to a tiny yet powerful ally: the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster).

The team developed a pipeline that leverages fruit flies as an animal model, by targeting a biological pathway shared with humans and implicated in type 2 diabetes. This approach reduces reliance on mice and other mammalian models, which require extensive infrastructure and longer experimental timelines—factors that often reinforce inequities in biomedical innovation and patent production.

In contrast, fruit flies offer a rapid life cycle, genetic similarity to humans, and the feasibility for precise genetic manipulation. These advantages make them ideal for high-throughput screening of medicinal candidates, including herbal compounds rooted in Indonesia’s rich ethnopharmacological traditions.

The study represents the first outcome of a collaborative research agreement between the Faculty of Pharmacy at Hasanuddin University and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) Kyoto University started in November 2024 . The study was published in Frontiers in Pharmacology on 31 July 2025.

Co-author comments

Type 2 diabetes affects countless Indonesians, including members of my own family. Many of them rely daily on antidiabetic medications. However, many of such medications have intolerable side effects, prompting people to switch from one to another. 

Discovering new therapeutic options is essential, but it is not a simple feat. For one, it relies on animal research. Insulin was discovered through experiments on dogs, and subsequent approval of antidiabetics were based on experiments involving mice. That is why utilizing fruit flies is an efficient strategy to make drug discovery more high-throughput and accessible. 

Professor Nainu and the UFRG team at Hasanuddin University are pioneers in fruit fly–based pharmaceutical research in Indonesia. I am deeply honored to collaborate with him and his team, and hopefully this approach will pave the way for novel drug candidates, including from herbal sources.  

Indonesia is rich in natural compounds with medicinal potential. By utilizing fruit flies, we are not only able to validate traditional remedies but also help democratize drug discovery, fostering inclusivity and equitable scientific contributions. This, in turn, can lead to innovations that, for us Indonesians, are both rooted in local knowledge and globally impactful. (Youdiil Ophinni)

Researcher

Youdiil Ophinni　Activity Database on Education and Research, Kyoto University

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<About the paper>
Youdiil Ophinni, Program-specific Assistant Professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies / Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University
E-mail:  yophinni [at] cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp (Please replace [at] with @.)

<About the publicity>
Public Relations Committee, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University
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