TRIP INITIATIVE
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Donate
    • FAQs - Summer TRIP
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • ALUMNI GALLERY
    • Ursinus 2015
    • Temple 2015
    • WTHS 2016
    • Temple 2016
    • WTHS 2017
    • Temple 2017
    • WTHS 2018
    • Temple 2018
    • WTHS 2019
    • Temple 2019
    • WTHS 2020
    • WTHS 2021
    • Temple 2021
    • WTHS 2022
    • Temple 2022
    • WTHS 2023
    • WTHS 2024
    • WTHS 2025
  • WTHS'25 Symposium
    • WTHS'25 Symposium Schedule >
      • Session A Schedule
      • Session B Schedule
  • Donate

Regular updates from students in TRIP

Adios, TRIP by Maha Vijayakrishnan

12/8/2019

0 Comments

 

​Time definitely flew by twice as fast at TRIP since I planned so much work out for myself. I tested the impact of bitter gourd on my fruit flies’ activity levels and gut microbiomes so I could analyze its overall impact on the body. However, this was no easy feat, as simple as it may sound. For example, I had to learn how to handle the flies delicately so that they did not escape or die. It still is a little hard, as Dr. Purdy caught me red handed when I accidentally massacred a few of my flies into my food just the other day. 
​Sorry!
Picture
Picture
Also, taking exact measurements has never been more important since inexact measurements can significantly impact a fly. With small lessons such as these in my head, I was able to accurately execute my assays. Although I had hypothesized that bitter gourd would increase the diversity of bacteria in our gut, my results did not show any diversity. Instead, I saw more bacteria in the flies that consumed bitter gourd, and they resembled the amount of bacteria in flies that consumed probiotic pills. Since probiotics are supplements that promote human health by increasing the bacteria in our body, I can infer that bitter gourd will definitely help gut health. 
Picture
Picture
Performing experiments in TRIP gave me a glimpse into the scientist life and just how complicated procedures could become (regardless of whether the experimental question is simple or not). Not only that, I learned to work with my labmates and loved making friends who actually laugh at my silly science jokes. I will miss having fun with my wonderful mentors and friends as well as working in the lab, but I am very grateful for this learning experience. 
Picture
However, in my negative geotaxis assay-- which tests fly activity-- I did not see promising results at first. My control flies and my flies that consumed bitter gourd were equally active. These flies were only on the diet for 3 days, which may have not been long enough to see a difference. Therefore, I tried to test the offspring of my experimental flies and found that 85.7% offspring that consumed bitter gourd were very active while 61.7% of my control offspring were very active.
Picture


​In short, consuming bitter gourd daily in the long term can significantly improve activity levels!
Picture
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Blog 1: Introductions!
    Blog 2: Planning An Independent Project
    Blog 3: Reflections

Thank you to our donors for making our mission possible through your generous support.
Picture

Company

About
Fox Chase Cancer Center

Support

Contact
​Menu
WEBSITE DESIGN INFORMATION:
The TRIP Initiative website was built by Alesandra (Sasha) Temerte (TRIP@TU'17 alum) ​ and Charity Robbins (TRIP@TU'22) and is not a product of Fox Chase Cancer Center
© COPYRIGHT 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
WEBSITE DESIGN BY ALESANDRA SASHA TEMERTE & CHARITY ROBBINS
LOGO DESIGN BY ARNAV DHINGRA
Photo from NIH-NCATS
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Donate
    • FAQs - Summer TRIP
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • ALUMNI GALLERY
    • Ursinus 2015
    • Temple 2015
    • WTHS 2016
    • Temple 2016
    • WTHS 2017
    • Temple 2017
    • WTHS 2018
    • Temple 2018
    • WTHS 2019
    • Temple 2019
    • WTHS 2020
    • WTHS 2021
    • Temple 2021
    • WTHS 2022
    • Temple 2022
    • WTHS 2023
    • WTHS 2024
    • WTHS 2025
  • WTHS'25 Symposium
    • WTHS'25 Symposium Schedule >
      • Session A Schedule
      • Session B Schedule
  • Donate