[Lfm] Fw: FW: FlyBase Crisis

Tue Jun 3 17:55:17 UTC 2025

Hi everyone
I am not sure if any of you are aware but FlyBase is in crisis, please see if you can help!

Many thanks
Ko-Fan

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________________________________
From: kofan <kofan.chen at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2025 6:50:23 PM
To: Chen, Ko-Fan (Dr.) <kc280 at leicester.ac.uk>
Subject: Fwd: FW: FlyBase Crisis

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From: Hanson, Mark <M.Hanson at exeter.ac.uk<mailto:M.Hanson at exeter.ac.uk>>
Date: Tue, Jun 3, 2025, 18:25
Subject: FW: FlyBase Crisis
To: grp-South West Fly Meeting <grp-southwestflymeeting at groups.bristol.ac.uk<mailto:grp-southwestflymeeting at groups.bristol.ac.uk>>

Hi all,

FlyBase is in desparate need of help. Forwarding this here to raise awareness. Please donate if you can and pass the word on.

Best,

Mark

Mark A. Hanson (he/him)
Wellcome Early Career fellow
University of Exeter, Penryn campus
Centre for Ecology and Conservation
Stella Turk B046-003
Ph: 0 7380 517 086

From: Nick Brown <nb117 at cam.ac.uk<mailto:nb117 at cam.ac.uk>>
Date: Tuesday, 3 June 2025 at 16:51
To: Hanson, Mark <M.Hanson at exeter.ac.uk<mailto:M.Hanson at exeter.ac.uk>>
Subject: FlyBase Crisis

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Dr Hanson,

We are writing to ask your help in saving FlyBase. We have lost the majority of funding for FlyBase from the US National Institute of Health (NIH), due to the turmoil of current US politics. We had successfully renewed FlyBase grant funding for another 5 years, however the main FlyBase Grant from NIH to Harvard, with its subawards to Indiana University and Cambridge UK, has been terminated at short notice. Furthermore, the user fees that have been so generously provided by Drosophila researchers are tied to the FlyBase grant so we are not permitted to use those either. As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost.

We are therefore reaching out to the community to request emergency funding to maintain the FlyBase team until we can source alternative and sustainable grant support. We have assembled and trained an expert group of curators in Cambridge, and if they are lost, it is unlikely we would be able to restart FlyBase should funds became available later. If FlyBase is essential for your research, please do make a contribution, as you would pay for other essential reagents. We appreciate that research funds are tight for many of you, but ask you to take a moment to consider how your group would be able to pursue your research without FlyBase.

We have divided our new fundraising efforts into a USA component to support Harvard and Indiana FlyBase teams, and this component within Europe to support the Cambridge UK team. Please note, in our fundraising we are not using the term FlyBase to ensure that there is no risk that NIH could freeze these funds too, but instead have used the name Drosophila Genetic Database. Please work with your administration to make your payments as soon as possible. If we get a rapid positive response from the community, we will be able to reassure our Cambridge curators that they still have a job ahead and retain them, rather than losing them to other jobs.

There are two ways you can contribute:

Method 1. If you are able to pay with lab funds, we have attached two requests for payments, aimed at smaller and larger labs, which we hope will be acceptable for your finance administrators. If you require a different kind of form, please reply with the details that you need. Similarly, if you wish to pay a different amount we can also adjust it for you.
Please use the reference ‘Drosophila Genetic Database’ and add your name and institution to the requests.

Method 2. If you want to make a personal donation or if it is easier to pay with a credit card, we have set up the following crowdfunding website:
https://www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-cambridge/physiology-development-and-neuroscience/drosophila-genetic-database

Thank you in advance for your help in saving our essential Drosophila Database.

We will keep you updated.

With best wishes,

Nick Brown and  Katja Röper

Cambridge UK PIs of the Drosophila genetic curation team
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