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

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee...how do we treat Parkinson’s disease?  by Amer Ahmed

4/3/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
For the next 3 weeks I will try to answer the question: How does Vitamin B6 affect Drug-Induced Parkinsonism? The medical relevance to humans is very important. Hinted by the title, Muhammad Ali was affected by Parkinson’s disease as well as other stars like Michael J. Fox. According to medicinenet.com, Parkinson’s disease is “the second most common neurodegenerative disorder and the most common movement disorder.” Parkinson’s involve “progressive loss of muscle control, which leads to trembling of the limbs and head while at rest, stiffness, slowness, and impaired balance.” For people affected by Parkinson’s, it is difficult to complete simple tasks like walking and talking. There is currently no treatment to cure Parkinson's disease, but there are therapies that delay the effects.

I want to find out if Vitamin B6 can provide a plausible treatment option because it is known to help produce neurotransmitters that stimulate brain and nerve cells. The objective of my project is to test the effects of Vitamin B6 and amplify the treatment of B6 to see any significant effects on Parkinson’s. To simulate Parkinson’s, I will treat the flies with Paraquat, which reduces the lifespan of flies and simulates the movement disorders like resting tremor (shaking arms), bradykinesia (slowness), rotational behavior (turning upright) , postural inability (falling). I will test the movement of the adult flies using a negative geotaxis assay, that knocks flies to the bottom of a vial to see how many flies will try to climb towards the top of the vial. I will also measure the fly’s energy consumption by measuring the height of the food in the vial and the weight and length of the flies. We’ll see what happens!

Picture
Picture
Picture
The first few weeks have been a lot of fun. I got to act like Robespierre during the French Revolution and chop off flies’ heads with a razor blade. I did a metabolism assay that involved decapitation, centrifuging, micropipetting, and using a spectrophotometer - all of which to determine the level of glucose in the hemolymph of a fly! It was definitely very fun and fascinating, as I’m learning new research techniques. I used melatonin and stressed the flies with constant dark (wrapping vials in a foil) and found interesting results. I also presented my findings with graphs and practiced creating science comics, both skills I will need for the final symposium down the line. So far the whole experience has left me more intrigued about research and I can’t wait to continue with my independent project!
Picture
1 Comment
Amer link
7/10/2018 08:37:42 am

This is such an informative post. You have a lot of really great points. I wish I had this post as a resource when I started blogging.

Reply

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