My Experiences at TRIP! by Megan Xie

Hi guys! The last four days at TRIP have flown by so quickly. In the past two weeks, I worked on my introductory experiment, where I tested the effects of black cohosh and disrupted circadian rhythms on female fly fertility. My female fertility assay showed that constant dark did not affect fertility, but that black cohosh was able to increase the number of embryos per female. I am so glad that fruit flies aren’t very hard to work with. TRIP has developed in me a fascination for the complexity of these organisms despite their small size. It amazes me to see how flies respond to certain drugs or stressors in the same way that humans do. By practicing with the lab equipment, I have also become a lot more confident in the lab.

 am so happy that I got assigned to Session B. I love everyone’s unique personalities, and even though we have only seen each other for five days, I feel that we have already established a strong friendship with one another. The environment I am in when I enter the TRIP lab inspires me so much, as everyone is extremely kind and smart, and they share the same passion and dedication that I admire, where we often stay up past midnight to get our assignments turned in on time (and not get shamed in class). I came to TRIP in hopes of growing from this experience, and just from listening to everyone present their project proposals on day three and receiving feedback on mine, I have already learned so much that I will keep in mind when preparing for the final symposium

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I chose to test bananas, apples, and grapes, which are high in fiber, sorbitol, and polyphenol, respectively, and a combination of these fruits to see which fruit component plays the most important role in microbiome diversity.

Figuring out exactly what my final project question would be took me quite a while. I remember reading about some of the projects on microbiomes in previous years and knowing at the start of the program that I wanted to test for microbiome diversity. However, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to test until I came across an article on how poor diet and diet-related diseases are a major health concern in the U.S. Since I am a very picky eater when it comes to fruits, I decided to test how eating a variety of fruits as opposed to one type of fruit will affect the gut microbiota. I chose to test bananas, apples, and grapes, which are high in fiber, sorbitol, and polyphenol, respectively, and a combination of these fruits to see which fruit component plays the most important role in microbiome diversity.

Yesterday, we began our independent project. From my plan, I estimated that I would have an extra hour to spare. However, I messed up and had to restart when making the fly food, took way longer than expected when sorting 320 flies, completely forgot about collecting developmental data for my introductory project until I began packing up to leave, and ended up staying past 5pm to get my work done. Since I have even more work to do tomorrow, I’m probably going to come a little earlier to get a head start.

TRIP has given me such an invaluable experience to explore my interests in science while also making new friends. I can’t wait to start the microbiome assay, and I’ll keep you updated with my results!