The meeting provides fruit fly researchers an opportunity for interaction and exchange of ideas pertaining to their research. The 49th Annual Drosophila Research Conference took place in San Diego, California, one of the best tourist destinations famous for its great weather and miles of sandy beaches. The meeting was organized by Nanci Bonini (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia), Susan Celnikar (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California), Brian Oliver (NIDDK, NIH, HHS, Bethesda, MD), and John Tamkun (University of California, Santa Cruz). This fly meeting was attended by nearly 1,500 Drosophila researchers from all over the world, who were treated to amazing presentations in 18 platform sessions encompassing 136 talks, 13 workshops, and around 1,000 posters on a broad spectrum of biomedical topics.