The Drosophila Research Conference is a yearly meeting organized by the Genetics Society of America (GSA) for the researchers who use the fruit fly model organism to study different facets of biomedical science. This meeting serves as a platform to present the cutting edge research in the fly model and provides an opportunity for interaction and exchange of ideas. The 47th Annual Drosophila Research Conference took place in Houston, Texas, USA, and was organized by Hugo J. Bellen, Ronald L. Davis, Graeme Mardon (Baylor College of Medicine), and Georg Halder (M.D. Anderson Cancer Center). Nearly 1,500 Drosophila researchers from different parts of the world attended this meeting and were treated to presentations on a broad spectrum of biomedical problems.