 I’ve had an exciting first few weeks in TRIP so far, I’ve had an amazing experience getting introduced to lab work and learning about research techniques. One of the most exciting things so far is becoming best friends with fruit flies, and wondering how such a tiny little insect can provide so much insight about biology and complex processes. I will admit at first, I was pretty nervous, and a little intimidated to work with them, but overtime I’ve grown to really like them and their use as a model organism. I’ve also really enjoyed learning about new things, like assays and techniques, asking questions to my instructors, and most importantly making mistakes and learning from them. Beyond the science part of TRIP, I’ve met many other students who are just as passionate and motivated like me, and it’s been great getting to know other people who share similar interests in biology and research.  For my independent project, I’m interested in studying how environmental stress affects protective pigmentation responses. My research question is about how UV radiation during development could potentially influence melanization in fruit flies, and whether Vitamin E, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substance, could help potentially mitigate the damage. UV radiation is a huge environmental stressor that causes oxidative damage and pigmentation changes in humans, which are super important things in dermatology and skin health. I think because there’s so many stress pathways that get conserved between different species, studying these processes in fruit flies can definitely help us understand how organisms respond to environmental damage, and how protective mechanisms work. Overall, my first weeks in TRIP have been nothing other than fun, and I’m excited to continue developing and executing my project, learning even more new skills, and building stronger friendships with my peers!
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 It’s wild how quickly time flies. We are already at the halfway point of TRIP! Looking back, I have picked up so many new skills that seemed intimidating to me at first. I started my kickoff experiment which went pretty smoothly. I explored intestinal inflammation in fruit flies by using soap which caused oxidative stress on my flies in turn causing a decrease in motility. My drug milk thistle was supposed to combat this effect because it reduced oxidative stress. I did the negative geotaxis assay, which is a measure of overall health. This was an assay that was tricky at first; however, it was pretty enjoyable to do after the first few attempts. I saw how many flies climbed above 4 cm after a physical disturbance. My results were pretty interesting, milk thistle on its own improved the flies’ climbing ability and soap caused a dramatic drop. What surprised me most was that combining milk thistle with soap did not reverse the soap's harmful effects.  This experiment opened my eyes to how everyday substances can affect our bodies in ways we don’t think about. Thus I went on to focus on acrylamide for my independent research. Most people don’t even know that whenever they cook starchy foods at high temperatures, crispy fires, golden toast, or crunchy chips, they are creating acrylamide, a compound that is both a neurotoxin and a carcinogen at high concentrations and long exposure. Since we can’t really avoid it in our diets, I wanted to explore whether a broccoli derived compound-sulforphane can provide a shield, as it’s known to combat the effects of other carcinogenic compounds. My project tests four conditions: plain food as a control, sulforaphane alone, acrylamide alone, and both together. I’ll track how each group affects development, motor function, and memory, through the negative geotaxis assay, developmental data, and the larval memory assay. I’m really eager to discover whether dietary choices could actually counteract the damage from these toxins.
 My first few weeks at TRIP have been one of the most interesting experiences of my life. Broadly, TRIP is a taste of the real science world and is what every aspiring experimental scientist should at least look into. It’s a perfect middle ground between full on scientific jobs and high-school level science which perfectly prepares high schoolers for the real world. I honestly feel so lucky to be a part of the class.  My first few weeks have been very fun. As a class, we’ve finished up our Kickoff experiments, analyzed the data, and presented our findings. The actual kickoff experiment was very fun, and while I certainly made some mistakes, it perfectly filled the role as a practice run for the proper independent project that we will start next week. The presentation was nerve-racking but ended up being a huge learning opportunity for me and others! In the second half of TRIP, we have an “independent project”, where we design, plan out, execute, and analyse our very own projects. Deciding on mine was a rollercoaster of feedback, editing, and pivoting but in class today (Feb 14th 2026), I was able to pin down exactly what I wanted to do. Deciding also taught me a lesson: You don’t always end up doing what you thought initially, as I basically fully changed my idea until nothing about it was the same. This wasn’t a sad thing, but rather an evolution of my original idea, an idea that I can defend and use to make the best of TRIP.
In addition to all of the learning experiences, TRIP has also introduced me to other science lovers my age – my classmates! They are all so cool and I had an opportunity to talk with them during class, and it is genuinely awesome to see other science fans learning and growing just like I am! See you soon!
- Kaiden Ramessur  As of today, Sunday, February 2nd, 2026, I have survived 5 entire weeks of TRIP, which have felt like both a lifetime ago because of the routine and a day ago because of the fun. I have learned so much across my journey in TRIP, and it has been more eye-opening than I could have ever imagined. The first month of TRIP revolved around our kickoff experiments, and mine was about head trauma’s impact on sociability and whether ginkgo biloba could have a restorative effect, since it has been studied for cognitive benefits in patients with Alzheimer's, dementia, and schizophrenia. I measured sociability by putting 5 flies of the same gender together and measuring the average distance between them every 5 minutes over 15 minutes total. The lower the average distance, the greater the sociability. My results were very interesting: Relative to the control, ginkgo biloba alone decreased the average inter-fly distance by 10.49%, while head trauma alone increased the average inter-fly distance by 45.96%, but both head trauma and ginkgo biloba decreased the average inter-fly distance by 23.05%. These results far exceeded my expectations for this medicinal plant, and I was very excited to share my results and hear from my peers about their experiments during our presentations in Week 4.
 Beyond the success of my experiment, I perhaps learned more through some of the mishaps I encountered along the way. For example, when measuring out fly food, I accidentally spilled a half-filled weighing boat of dehydrated fly food on the ground, emphasizing to me the value of caution and control in the lab. Luckily, it was a mostly non-hazardous substance, like panko breadcrumbs, but the long-term lesson was more important than the risk, or lack thereof, then. Additionally, funnily enough, when working with many fruit fly vials, I accidentally opened my control vial instead of what I had thought to be an empty vial. So, as I was recording some numbers on a packet, I saw more than a dozen flies from the corner of my eye flutter away before I could close it. While there was not much else to take away from that experience besides the importance of mise en place and caution in the lab, I had a good laugh from it all.  Most importantly, through conversations and collaborative work with all of my peers and instructors in Session A, I learned so much about my TRIPmates: their passions, hobbies, plans for their independent projects, and what makes them who they are. Everyone I have met has been kind, ambitious, and knowledgeable with fun personalities. While we all fare well on our own, we can work even better at times in groups or pairs. A big takeaway for me was the words of Dr. Glenn Rall, who came in to talk to us during a luncheon on the 7th. His lessons on failure and adapting to new paths resonated with me for the challenges that I have faced and overcome to get to where I am today. Just like Dr. Rall, I cannot see myself any other way than the path I have taken, intentionally or not.  Given all that I have learned and practiced, I feel confident to step forward with my independent project: studying the potential health impacts of ingested photoactivated titania microparticles on fruit flies at varying concentrations compared to flies exposed to non-photoactivated titania and flies not exposed to any titania. It is a complicated experiment and will likely be one of my greatest challenges yet, but the greatest joy in life for me is to test my limits and see what is possible. Besides, as Dr. Rall taught us, mistakes and setbacks, whether in TRIP, our professional lives, or our personal lives, drive us forward, so I am glad to keep stumbling and TRIPing my way through life.
 Hi everyone, it’s been a while! Time is definitely flying by, these past 5 weeks have been so incredible. We have all learned and grown so much in the lab together, whether that was making fly food, grape plates, micropipetting, collecting data, and of course, my favorite part, working with the flies!
 For my independent project, I decided to study the effects of NSAID exposure on anxiety and behavior, and whether these commonly used pain medications impact gut health, affecting areas beyond their intended role in pain relief. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen are very widely used to reduce pain and inflammation, but their potential effects on anxiety and social behavior are less widely known. I think many people commonly use these painkillers regularly without considering possible long-term side effects, whether that’s for chronic illness, headaches, or menstrual cramps, etc. I picked this research question because I find the gut-brain axis really fascinating and am interested in how changes in gut health can affect function and behavior. I think it would be really cool to see if exposure to commonly used NSAIDs can cause changes in social behavior or anxiety, and whether that might be an indirect effect or occur in conjunction with changes in gut health. To answer my research question, I plan to create four conditions: a control, a normal-dose ibuprofen group, a heightened-dose group, and a group modeling excessive use. I’m interested in seeing if these effects are dose-dependent, as I believe this is a very relevant question given that NSAIDs are commonly overused, with around 20% of users exceeding recommended dosages as they underestimate the risks of misuse. I will be performing a microbiome assay to examine gut health and a centrophobism assay to measure anxiety levels. I’m SO excited to be starting this process next week and am so grateful for all the support I’ve received from everyone at TRIP. I’ve made a ton of great memories, and I can’t wait to continue this journey and share what I discover from my independent project! Thank you for taking this trip with me! :)
 Hey everyone, it's been quite some time since I’ve created a blog, and much has changed. We are now knee-deep into the program, and time has been moving incredibly fast in TRIP. It’s hard to believe how much we have already done. From meeting new people to meeting our small little flying friends, everything has been a learning experience. I can say that I’ve already learned much from Dr. Austria, Dr. Nick, and Dr. Valdes, and will continue to do so. Before this program, I hated fruit flies, but because of the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to learn about the entirety of the fruit flies, including why we use them as a model organism.
 Once our kickoff experiment was completed and we had presented them, it was time to begin our independent projects. For me, the hardest part was narrowing down a topic, as there are so many possibilities in biomedical research. After some research and deep reflection, I decided to focus on how stress during early life affects physiological resilience later in life, specifically looking at neuromuscular and metabolic health.  I was originally inspired by the concept of resilience—how some individuals are able to recover or adapt after experiencing stress. Many people throughout the world experience stress early in their lives, whether from challenging environments, difficult circumstances, or even dietary stressors, and I wondered how these experiences might influence the body as it develops into adulthood. My project uses fruit flies as a model organism to study this: through the exposure of early-life stress and then observing their neuromuscular and metabolic health later, I can measure how well their systems recover or adapt, through the use of two different assays, negative geotaxis and the depression assay. In other words, their physiological response allows me to measure their resilience—the ability to bounce back from challenges.  This also connects to a relatable issue among students like me: burnout. Many young souls often push themselves to their limits due to social pressures from school, extracurricular activities, and our own personal responsibilities. By understanding how early life stress impacts resilience at a biological level, I hope that this project can provide insight into why some individuals are more vulnerable to stress later on, while others are better able to cope. Well, that's all for now! I’m excited to see where this goes, and I’ll be sure to update everyone on the journey!!!
 Hello! I can’t believe how quickly the first few weeks of TRIP’26@WTHS have gone by! After participating in Summer TRIP last year, it has been so rewarding to return to the lab with more confidence and independence. For my kickoff experiment, I investigated how a high-sugar diet affects female fertility in fruit flies and whether fenugreek could provide a protective effect. I used the female fertility assay, which measures two outcomes: oogenesis (the number of embryos laid per female) and embryogenesis (the percent of embryos that hatch). In this assay, the main materials we used were grape plates that we prepared ourselves, yeast paste, and collection cages. We transferred the flies, incubated them for an hour, and counted the embryos. Then we incubated them for two days and froze them to count the hatched embryos (shoutout to Dr. Austria, who did this for us since it was outside the TRIP session time!). My hypothesis that fenugreek would counteract the negative effects of a high sugar diet was partially supported. Overall, this experiment was a really cool way to explore how different aspects of diet can directly impact development and reproductive health.  Beyond the lab techniques, I really appreciate the collaborative energy of TRIP. After we finished our kickoff experiment, we presented our experiments to the class and our instructors. After our presentations, receiving the thoughtful, constructive feedback from our teachers has helped me think more critically about experimental design and refine my research communication. I have also really enjoyed working with my peers and making new friends. TRIP creates a great balance between collaboration, mentorship, and independent work. This environment gives everyone room to make mistakes, but also grow and learn from them. So far, we have built a strong foundation in lab skills, experimental planning, and data analysis, so I feel well prepared to start my independent project.  For my independent project, I want to build on my interest in nutrition and reducing ultra-processed food intake. I am specifically interested in studying how a common additive, the emulsifier Polysorbate-80 (Tween 80), affects health. This additive is often found in foods such as ice cream, coffee creamers, salad dressings, and sauces to improve texture and shelf life. It’s a hidden ingredient that many of us consume without realizing it. My research question asks: How does a high sugar diet combined with Polysorbate-80 affect gut health and female fertility in fruit flies? I am especially interested in whether combining sugar with the emulsifier, which more closely simulates common ultra-processed foods, causes more harm than each factor alone. I want to study the direct and long-term effects of the gut microbiome on fertility and development. Through this, I hope to improve our understanding of how our everyday food choices could have negative biological consequences. I am so excited to start my experiment next week and see where this research takes me!   Welcome back! In the span of only a couple of weeks, so much has been done! I’ve learned so many skills and was able to gauge my strengths and weaknesses throughout our initial kickoff experiment. My project focused on the effects of valerian, an herbal supplement that acts as a mild sedative, and disrupted circadian rhythms on female fertility. To do this, I gave some fruit flies valerian and wrapped some vials with tinfoil to disrupt the flies' circadian rhythm. Then I tested female fertility using, you guessed it, the female fertility assay! In essence, I transferred the flies into a containment cage attached to a grape plate. Then I let the flies sit in a dark area for 1-2 hours before looking at how many embryos there were in the grape plate under a microscope. Then I waited around 2 days to see how many of the embryos hatched. Ultimately, I found that the use of both valerian and disrupted circadian rhythms resulted in the largest number of embryos formed and the highest hatching percentage; however, the use of valerian and disrupted circadian rhythms separately helped in forming more embryos, but not to the same degree as the use of both.  One of the most important aspects of the kickoff experiment to me was understanding what I am good at and what I am not. More specifically, I realized I was inefficient at quantifying objects, like counting embryos on a grape plate. However, I was confident in my abilities to set up viles and follow the directions to have everything ready, before waiting 90 minutes before counting embryos. This helped me realize what was viable when choosing the assays for my final independent project.  When determining what I wanted to study for my independent project, I initially wanted to do something related to agriculture. This idea stemmed from the debate of whether organic vegetables were really worth it, which led me to want to research certain fungicides. However, many were too toxic and already thoroughly studied, leaving few gaps in the literature. After that, I landed on sodium nitrite, one of the most prevalent preservatives in the processed meats industry. According to the NIH, “highly processed foods accounted for two-thirds of the calories consumed by youth in the US.” As this number continues to increase, and evidence of the detrimental effects of processed foods mounts, understanding the long-term effects of persistent ingestion of these foods with such preservatives on gut health is necessary. That is why I am choosing the study “How do persistent doses of sodium nitrite affect the gut-microbiome and overall health of Drosophila melanogaster? Do differing dosages result in similar effects in the gut-microbiome?
 Hey everyone! The first few weeks of TRIP have really flown by. I can’t believe that it’s already been five weeks since the program first kicked off. A lot of the time I’ve spent in TRIP during the last 5 weeks has been dedicated to my kickoff experiment, where I studied how Valerian and a disrupted circadian rhythm affect fly anxiety. To do this, I used the centrophobism assay. I placed flies in petri dishes and observed their movement patterns in and across the center of their chambers. I presented my experiment and different tips and tricks for the assay in our kickoff experiment presentations, which were a great experience all around.
 Watching my peers present their kickoff experiments inspired me to form my own ideas for my independent project. I’ve always been interested in the brain, which is why I chose to study anxiety for my kickoff experiment. When I saw that some of my peers used head trauma as a stressor, my interest was immediately piqued – I’ve had friends go through TBI and seen some of my favorite athletes suffer from CTE. So, for my independent project, I decided to look into the effects of head trauma and omega-3 fatty acids on fly memory. Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to have a positive effect versus cognitive decline – I wonder if it’ll be able to alleviate further negative effects like the one head trauma has on memory? After discussing with my fellow TRIP students, Dr. Austria and Dr. Valdes, my project is officially ready to go. I can’t wait to get started next week!
 Hey everyone, guess who’s back! These last weeks at TRIP have flown by, and it’s hard to think that I’m halfway through! Lately, I’ve been working on my kickoff experiment, in which I looked at how Vitamin D3 and sugar affect fly motility. I predicted that the high sugar diet would cause inflammation in the flies and reduce their motility, and that the Vitamin D3 would help mitigate the negative effects from the sugar. This experiment was a great way to see how to properly conduct research in a lab setting, while giving me ample time to consider what I wanted to research myself. I was able to learn some experimental techniques that were completely new to me at the time, like how to conduct the negative geotaxis assay. Although the name certainly seemed scary at first, nothing felt better than quickly running through trials and jotting my data down onto a notebook, and later into a spreadsheet (shoutout to Dr. Nick for giving me a hand with the whole process!).  When I learned that I had to present my kickoff experiment to my peers, I was, frankly, a little bit terrified. While school had certainly thrown my way a few presentations here and there, I was still unsure of how my presentation skills were. After whipping up a slideshow, I came to TRIP and presented without a second thought. And just like that, it was over. As I went to sit down, thinking over the feedback from the instructors, I felt that I had improved- even if only by a little. And that was enough for me.  The independent project had always felt so far away, yet so anticipated- and yet, as I finished off my kickoff experiment, it was suddenly right in front of me. I, of course, had no issue picking what I wanted to experiment with: goji berries. These bright red, usually dried berries have been perched upon countertops in bags and floating in bowls ever since I was a kid. And while I now trust my parents when they advise me to eat my greens, I can’t help but be uncertain about why I should eat these reds. The true health benefit of these berries, a superfood that has (according to my mom) been ‘rising in popularity lately’, had always seemed so elusive to me. And now is my time to see it for myself. I hypothesize that my mom will be right, of course, but being ‘good for you’ is not very specific. So, I will be looking at the physical health of the flies through the negative geotaxis assay that I had practiced, as well as bringing in a larval locomotion assay that I had not tried before. After all, if these flies are model organisms for humans, then I suppose I’m closer to being a larva than I am to being an adult. Overall? It’s been great! Getting to make new friends and learn new things has been beyond fun. The flies that I got to take home on day 1 made for wonderful companions while they were with me (let’s say they’re in a better place now). ‘Til next time!
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