TRIP INITIATIVE
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Donate
    • FAQ
    • 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
  • Apply to TRIP

Regular updates from students in TRIP

TRIP 2021 Finale by Roman Ferraro

10/16/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
    Wow, what a ride this has been! I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and have learned so much in the short weeks I spent in the lab. I did not expect time to fly (get it?) by so quickly. I remember a few weeks ago not even knowing what the scientific name for a fly was to now being able to identify the sex of a fly and what stage of development it is in in mere seconds. I went from being annoyed by flies to sort of liking them in a weird way. I definitely appreciate them more than I used to. After 6 weeks, my disdain for flies turned into admiration and that in it of itself is a feat. We have only been out of the lab for 4 days and I already miss it. That’s one thing I am definitely taking away from this experience - I need to choose a career where I get to spend some time in the lab! 
        A few weeks ago, I shared with you all my idea to study water quality in the school district’s effect on the gut microbiome. This project was inspired by the Flint Water Crisis as well as my own experiences in urban and suburban high schools. During my freshman year, I went to a suburban high school before transferring to Roxborough. Prior to my time at Haverford, my suburban school, I had only gone to intercity schools with limited funding so I knew about the extreme differences in funding well before reentering the school district. However, upon starting at Roxborough, I truly began to take note of the differences between the schools, including the difference in water taste and quality. At Haverford, it didn't matter what fountain you used, the water tasted the same. However, at Roxborough only the water coming from the filtration fountains tasted okay. Because of these differences and my love for bacteria and disease, I figured testing water quality through the gut microbiome was a great choice for my project. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
   I tested water from Temple University, Roxborough High School, and William Tennent High School.  I ran the gut microbiome assay for myself 5 times, with six vials each time and multiple times for other people in the lab. In roughly 3 weeks, I probably tested close to fifty microbiomes! I had a lot of fun doing the microbiome assay, even though at first glance it might look boring given that it is over 75% micropipetting and creating dilutions. I ended up testing 6 different water sources and the results were pretty astonishing. My suspicions were confirmed that my suburban school, William Tennent, most matched my control, a water bottle. However, I discovered that the difference in a normal microbiome and an altered one was not a difference in school district but rather an urban vs suburban issue. I think this has a lot to do with environmental justice and the disparities in resources that urban people vs suburban people have access to.
Picture
TRIP was such an amazing experience and I had a blast meeting everyone! The lab was always buzzing (see what I did there?) and it was so fun to sort flies with everyone at the CO2 pads. A fair warning to everyone applying to TRIP: sorting flies will simultaneously be the best and worst experience you have in the lab. 
0 Comments

The Finish Line by Diego Asencio

10/4/2021

0 Comments

 
After a bittersweet last day in the lab, my TRIP experience is near over. All the train rides, homework, calculations, and flies are behind me. However, all the knowledge that I have gained and relationships that I have made will never be lost. After the first week, where keeping on top of the homework was not my strong suit, I never thought that I would be able to finish anything in the intensive lab, but with the help of Dr. Leystra and Dr. Purdy, my experiment was a success! Let's take a look into exactly what was a success, what wasn’t, and how I learned from the amazing experience in the TRIP Lab.
Picture
My experiment was set up to answer the question, does omeprazole have any long term side effects? I take omeprazole to help treat my Eosinophilic Esophagitis, so I wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be any major unknown side effects. The Larval Locomotion with Methyl Blue assay was the perfect experiment to use to answer my question. How it works is on a 10 cm x 15 cm strip of thermal paper, I spread out five larvae and painted them with a 0.2% methyl blue dilution. The larvae would leave a trail on the paper showing exactly where they went over a 10 minute period. I then used a software to measure out the distance and used the average distance traveled per condition to determine whether or not the larvae were healthy. I used a control condition, and then by using 2 solutions, I made the equivalent to 20 mg, 40 mg, 80 mg, and 120 mg of omeprazole for flies and put it into their food. The question was successful overall, and depending on how you look at it not so good news - The higher the dose the larvae were given, the less average distance they traveled.
Now, it wouldn’t be a teenager in a university lab without a few mistakes here and there. At first, I wanted to test the lifespan of the fly, but there would not be enough time to conduct the assay in the lab. This was the ultimate goal, as I wanted to make sure that my lifespan would not be affected by this drug, but I was unfortunately never able to test the lifespan. Furthermore, after picking the Larval Locomotion with methyl blue, I wanted to not only measure the distance, but also the amount of turns and how fast the larvae were moving. But the turns seemed to be completely random, and the speed was impossible to measure unless I recorded all 10 minutes of the larvae and tried to estimate the speed. On top of these mistakes, on my second rep I forgot to make a control vial, so now I am completely aware about the dangers of sharing control conditions between different reps, and then I forgot to take flies home with me to conduct the assay at home for rep 5. So all in all, being naive was an incredibly obvious thing to not do, but I fell for the trap of biting off more than I could chew.
Picture
And so now, at the end of it all, what have I learned? To be honest, I will have to see what I learned when I get thrown into another lab experience. Testing my skills such as pipetting, calculations, communications, and clarity, are all going to be important, and that's not to mention getting to the lab on time, having all my work done for the day, finding time to eat and drink, which are all just as important. But there is no doubt in my mind that TRIP has better prepared me for any science lab that I will see in the future. If I could say one thing to my week one self, I would tell him to put his head down and get to work, because TRIP is not a cakewalk.
0 Comments

    Archives

    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

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
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Donate
    • FAQ
    • 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
  • Apply to TRIP