Kickoff Experiment by Sharizoda Farmonova

Hello, my name is Sharizoda, and my peers and I have recently conducted our Kickoff Experiments. It was certainly a novel experience, working with fruit flies in a professional setting. In contrast, I felt very out of place for a little more than a hot second, but that's all right since the purpose of the Kickoff Experiment is meant to prepare you for your own design, which means making mistakes at this time is okay!

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My Kickoff Experiment was centered around whether circadian rhythms would affect fruit fly anxiety, which I tested with a centrophobism assay, also known as the open field test. The drug I used for this test was rhodiola, an adaptogen, which is a part of a class of natural substances that help the body resist stress and fatigue. I more or less learned to accurately create the diluted solution for food using measurements and micropipettes, which I'm relieved I figured out how to do (especially thanks to my peers and TA!). My stressor was darkness, intended to disrupt the circadian rhythm or natural biological clock in the fruit flies, which was simply achieved by wrapping the fly vials in foil. This was all for the setup of my experiment, which progressed rather smoothly.

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To actually conduct my assay, I first had to create a thin layer of agar in petri dishes to limit fruit fly movement to a 2-Dimensional plane, ensuring that they could not fly or jump. This part was super fun to do with my friends! Things did go a little downhill while recording my data, as my flies were much less active than what is considered normal. This was a hiccup that other TRIP members faced as well, and we formed a thorough hypothesis that we were conspired against by the fruit flies. (The fruit flies knew what they were doing!) Noticing something was wrong the first time I collected data, I decided to run another trial for my control group, which was not perfect but definitely better than my first run. In spite of this, the most nerve-wracking part of the Kickoff Experiment was most certainly the presentation. I feel like the sheer number of flips my heart did during the span of those 5 minutes could make it a world-class acrobat. The positive thing about the presentation is that the feedback and commentary will certainly aid in preparing you for the future symposium. 

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With the end of the Kickoff, the planning for the Independent Project officially began. Having options open to whatever you can imagine is both a blessing and a curse. I ended up choosing to do an experiment comparing the effect of two different wavelengths of light on senescence, which is the process of aging. Blue light is something that everyone in the modern age is exposed to for frequent periods of time, which can have a detrimental impact on the body's circadian rhythms and strain certain parts of the body, like the eyes. In contrast, other types of wavelengths, like the red light spectrum, have become popular for their therapeutic and antiaging effects. For my independent project design, I chose to compare blue light to green light, as red light is not visible to fruit flies, and have recently learned during my research process that green light is also used as a therapy method for different things, like migraines and sleep. The independent project is something that my peers and I must work hard on, so I wish good luck to us!   
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