Getting on my way! by Tina Tian

Hi! It’s Tina here again. As TRIP is crossing its halfway point, we are finally starting to conduct our individual research project! Since I was accepted into the program, I was super excited about creating my own project from scratch, and now, being able to write up my own plans, goals, directions, etc., it truly made me feel like a scientist at work. 

When we were coming up with independent research project ideas together, I knew I wanted to do something with antibiotics, and many people were suggesting to relate them to probiotics. That made me think of my past experiences: whenever I had a stomach ache, my grandparents always gave me yogurt to drink since they believed it is a good method to reduce pain. But if the stomach ache did not go away for a long time, I would go to the hospital and be prescribed medicine to relieve what turns out to be intestinal inflammation. Later on, I found that the medicine is a type of antibiotic, while yogurt contains many types of probiotics, and that lead me thinking, will the effects of antibiotics and probiotics cancel each other (as it sounds like it will), or will they be more beneficial when taken together like many people believed? 

Since there are many authorized articles that proved both the effectiveness of antibiotics and yogurt on intestinal inflammation, I established my research around two main points: the effectiveness of antibiotics and yogurt when they are both used together, and their effect on fly anxiety to determine these diets’ effects on mood. Combining these two points together, I established my research question as “How do antibiotics and yogurt affect levels of anxiety in flies with intestinal inflammation”. Through exploring this topic, I hope that my results can break myths and help others eliminate ineffective use of antibiotics and probiotics in daily life. 

How do antibiotics and yogurt affect levels of anxiety in flies with intestinal inflammation?"

Although coming up with the research question seems like a long process, but believe me, calculating the drug concentrations and stocks is such a burden! Converting from human doses to fly doses, going from the final concentration to different stocks, and then repeating that for antibiotics, yogurt, sucrose, DSS (what gives the flies inflammation), … All that math is making me lost in the numbers. However, Dr. Leystra and the TAs are very helpful in guiding me towards the right steps, and eventually, the math came to solid steps of how to make the drug stocks, so the process of making the stocks went relatively fast. Because DSS cannot be put directly in fly food, I have to put my drugs and sucrose onto a piece of paper and change it for both 2 days that one trial lasts, so I get to bring my flies home and perform a small transfer in my “home lab”! This will be a little more work for me than my peers, but it is such a great experience in carrying out a complete lab project. 

Over the first few weeks of TRIP, I made many new friends. I always look forward to the 4 hours with my TRIP friends (and also the lovely fruit flies)! Everyone gives me such valuable ideas and suggestions that I cannot easily get in school or daily life. Finally, thank YOU for reading my blog and being a part of my experience; stay tuned for a last update on the results of my study and final reflections! ​