This document discusses diabetes and the use of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) as a model organism to study type 2 diabetes. It provides background on diabetes, describing it as resulting from insufficient insulin production or insulin resistance. It then outlines advantages of using fruit flies as a model, such as their short lifespan, sequenced genome, and ability to produce large numbers of offspring. Several genetic pathways involved in glucose intolerance in fruit flies are also discussed. The document concludes by suggesting future areas of research using the fruit fly model to study human diabetes genes and their functions.