Antibiotics and Diabetes…? by Emily Miller

Hi guys, it’s Emily M again! For my individual project, I’m going to be studying the effects of antibiotics (like penicillin) on glucose metabolism.  I’ll be giving half of my flies a Penicillin mixture of antibiotics in their food, and then a week later I’ll give them all varying concentrations of sugar.  My hypothesis is that the fewer bacteria that exist in the gut, the less that sugar will break down.

I’m really excited for the upcoming weeks, but it’s a lot of work to do.  For both sets of vials, I’ll end up sorting 600 flies! I’ve already sorted 300 of them, so it shouldn’t be too bad, right? Dr. Purdy and the other teachers have been really helpful throughout the program, and I’m thankful they’re helping guide me.  600 flies is a lot of flies to keep track of!

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