Dr. De Luca has a long standing interest in elucidating the contribution of genetics to complex traits. Her early work focused largely on the genetics of aging. Over the past ten years, she has expanded her research program to establish a Drosophila model for obesity and cardiometabolic syndrome. Although her work uses D. melanogaster as a key experimental tool, collaborative research efforts with other scientists at UAB and other institutions have successfully facilitated the translation of the findings in flies to humans. These studies have clearly shown that many components regulating Drosophila energy balance and metabolism are shared between flies and humans and established Drosophila as a powerful model to identify novel evolutionary conserved genetic pathways controlling variation in these traits.