End of a TRIP, Beginning of a Journey by Gurnoor Othie

Hello everyone! My name is Gurnoor, and this is my final blog post for the TRIP initiative. Upon the conclusion of an amazing three-month TRIP, I look back on the knowledge I have gained, the community I became a part of, and the experience of a lifetime I have had. Coming into TRIP, I could not tell a female and male fly apart, but now I can proudly say I have conducted an independent project sorting over 1000 of them!

My independent research project investigated the effect of overcrowding on fertility and progeny health. This project was inspired by some background research that revealed urban infertility rates were more significant than rural infertility rates, leading me to wonder why this occurred. I narrowed it down to a significant difference between the two locations: population. In order to analyze the impact this stressor had on fertility, I set up a control vial with the standard amount of food and 20 males and 40 females, along with a stressed vial containing the same quantity of flies but double the amount of food so the population density within that vial was greater. I then conducted the female fertility assay to calculate an embryo per female ratio of each vial, revealing that the stressor had no impact on fertility. However, after calculating the % hatching for each vial, I realized that a significantly smaller proportion of the embryos in the stressed vial hatched into larvae. This led me to conclude that though population had no impact on fertility, it did affect the health of the progeny negatively. This realization led me to another question: Could we counteract this negative effect with dietary supplements? 

In order to answer my new question, I set up three additional vials: one containing Fenugreek, one containing Shatavri, and one stressed vial containing both herbs. I chose these herbs as they have both been linked to hormonal balance and an increase in estrogen, which correlate to a higher fertility rate. Each week, I continued performing the female fertility and analyzed each vial's embryo/female ratios and % hatching rate. My results indicated that while Shatavari had no impact on fertility, Fenugreek had a significant impact. Additionally, though Shatavari had no impact on fertility, it greatly positively affected the health of the progeny along with Fenugreek. Finally, both of these herbs, when incorporated in the overpopulated vial, could counteract the stressor's negative effects and rescue the health of the progeny. 

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Throughout conducting this project, I gained confidence in myself as a researcher and my ability to present my work at the symposium

Throughout conducting this project, I gained confidence in myself as a researcher and my ability to present my work at the symposium. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity and thankful to all the mentors who guided me along the way. I am confident that the work I did at TRIP will be valuable to any future work I do as a researcher or in the medical field. ​