 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.
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