It’s Tea Time! by Akram Aboras

Hello everyone! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been almost a month since I started TRIP, having completed my kickoff experiment and now steering towards my independent project. I’ve learned so much in these past few weeks, figuring out how to sort flies, perform assays, collect and analyze data, and so much more!

For my kickoff experiment, I explored the effects of Melatonin and disrupted circadian rhythms on fruit fly sociability. To do this, I had to put my flies to sleep using ice, sort them on the ice, carefully place them into small chambers, and finally take photos and measure the average distance between the flies using a program called FIJI. I learned that the larger the average distance is between the flies, the less social they are, and the smaller the average distance is between them, the more social they are. My results ended up contradicting my hypothesis, revealing that melatonin and constant darkness actually increased fruit fly sociability instead of decreasing it. I was also surprised to see that instead of the effects getting stronger when both were present, sociability ended up returning to normal when both were present. Seeing everyone else’s projects was also extremely compelling and the kickoff experiment definitely helped kickstart ideas for what I wanted to do for my independent project.

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​While performing my kickoff experiment, I realized that I found studying sleep extremely interesting and decided that I wanted to venture back into the world of sleep for my independent project through sleep deprivation. Not only is it extremely common in teenagers, but I also find myself deprived of sleep sometimes as well while juggling academics and extracurriculars in my schedule. On the dietary side of things, I knew I was interested in testing the effects of teas and their impacts on possibly remedying the effects of sleep deprivation. My family drinks a lot of tea as it is- and I’ve always been interested in herbs and their effects as home remedies like tea to alleviate symptoms of sleep deprivation like anxiety. While doing more research, I learned that sleep deprivation can significantly increase anxiety levels along with discovering that Chamomile and Ashwagandha tea are popular options for calming people down and relieving anxiety, leading me to investigate if they can mitigate the impacts of sleep deprivation on fruit fly anxiety.

Through gaining more skill and confidence in the first few weeks, I’m excited to dive deeper into my independent project and the results I’ll uncover along the way. See you next time, and remember to get enough sleep

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