Flying through TRIP! by Warring John

These past few weeks of TRIP have been extremely fun and interesting. Since my last blog post, I've had the opportunity to work with actual fruit flies and run my kickoff experiment with them. My kickoff experiment analyzed the impact of black cohosh and a disrupted circadian rhythm on female fly fertility. To my surprise, the results showed that both black cohosh and a disrupted circadian rhythm had negative effects on female fertility. 
​The assay I had to perform for my kickoff experiment was the female fertility assay. This assay was the most time-consuming and intense assay in my opinion. I was tasked with quickly transferring the flies from the vials to the conical tubes without knocking them out with CO2. How, may you ask? We just had to dump them into the conical tube and keep tapping so hopefully none would fly out before we place the grape plate on top to cover it. Thankfully I did not lose many flies. After I did this for all four of my vials, I let them incubate inside a box for a darker environment. After 2 hours we checked the embryos that were laid in the grape plates under the microscopes. Some of my vials had upwards of 100 embryos! From this assay, I learned that there are a lot of variables and a lot that can go wrong when running an experiment, so it is always best to conduct more than one trial. I then presented my findings to the rest of my peers and received some valuable feedback.

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After our presentations, we began brainstorming out independent projects. I initially wanted to explore how UV light causes oxidative stress, but I was aware that UV light has many other effects on cells, including causing damage to DNA which would make it harder to focus on oxidative stress only. For my experiment to be more controlled, I decided to use hydrogen peroxide instead since it is a known oxidative stress inducer. This led me to think of antioxidants and how they might protect cells. I then came across Selenium which was interesting due to it being an essential element of glutathione peroxidase, an enzyme that helps in the decomposition of harmful ROS. By testing whether selenium can reduce the effects of hydrogen peroxide, I hope to better understand how it protects cells from oxidative damage

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