Let's Talk About My TRIP by Amira Phillips

​​Hello! Welcome to my blog.

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​I am Amira Phillips, if you did not already know. So let me update you on what has been going on so far. I am a few weeks into the program. Currently, we are working on our independent projects.  Yes, just like it sounds... us students have the opportunity to create our own projects using fruit flies, of course. While I was thinking of something to base my experiment, I kept in mind I wanted  to research something different and new; a subject that interests me, since it is my project!

​I decided to design an experiment that could potentially answer the question “How does sexual enhancement affect female fertility development?” I decided to go with a drug store, off brand Viagra. So far I have completed my drug calculations, which took what felt like forever and were really hard but also really important. I have set up vials with my drug and flies, and I also even sorted extra flies which I will be mixing into my current vials.

You may ask, what about my predictions? I think that my flies will begin to produce very rapidly and that the offspring with have developmental defects such as slow development or altered behaviors. I do not have any data to share yet but I will soon. 

My collective experience here at TRIP has been very different than what I expected and very different than the last summer program I did at Temple University. The days are not too long which is a plus, and we are able to go get lunch which is really nice and refreshing. My favorite part is how there is always something hands-on for me to do. I have been learning a lot so far and I hope that continues to happen as the program progresses.