The humble fruit fly may not look very clever, but its tiny brain has more in common with humans' than you might think - a fact that has encouraged scientists to attempt to create a "virtual fly brain" in the hope that it will lead to discoveries that could combat neurological diseases.

An international coalition of neuroscientists, biologists and computer experts will meet in Edinburgh tomorrow to discuss the possibility of simulating the brain of the drosophila fruit fly, a species already used for decades by geneticists.

With around 100,000 neurons - the information-processing and transmitting cells that are the main component of the brain - the fruit fly has the simplest form of a brain capable of complex behaviour, which includes the ability to learn.

Although simpler, its nervous system and neurons work in a similar way to humans' and its DNA contains genes that, when found in people, are thought to cause conditions such as depression and schizophrenia. Fruit flies can also become addicted to alcohol, cocaine or other drugs and have been used by groups studying Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

J Douglas Armstrong, deputy director of Edinburgh University's Centre for Bioinformatics, organised the two-day event. He said: "It is technologically possible, but it's pushing every single limit. You've got 100,000 neurons and each one has got up to 1000 connections. When you're working with such large numbers, error can easily occur.

"We don't know what the ground plan is, so we're going to have to dissect the fly brain first and put it back together. In some respects it's like looking at an IBM supercomputer and then going in with an axe."

Attempts to simulate brains have previously focused on modelling slices, rather than the system as a whole. Dr Charles Peck has led an IBM research project called Blue Brain, which simulates the area of a rat's brain responsible for perception, learning, behaviour and cognition. He will be discussing what he has learned through his own project with the researchers who will assemble at Edinburgh University this week.

He said: "The fruit fly is one of the most studied and most experimentally accessible organisms. Just as the molecular underpinning of the fly is similar to that of humans, maybe nature has conserved some fundamental circuits and processes that may illuminate human cognition.

"Successful simulation of the fly brain would provide unprecedented insights into global brain function and provide a framework to guide and accelerate future neuroscience research. By exposing the foundations of biological computation, this project may also lead to new technologies for solving the problems of society."

When the brain is successfully simulated, the researchers hope to build a robot fly. If it behaves in the correct way, then its creators can be sure they understand the way its brain works.

Barbara Webb, of Edinburgh University, said: "There are a lot of problems in mechanics, materials and sensors to solve to produce a robotic fly. The interaction of the brain with the body is critical to reproducing the behaviour. It would be significant if we could build a robot with the locomotor and sensory skills of a fly, particularly if of comparable size and energy consumption, and this would be well beyond the current state of the art in robotics."