My TRIP So Far! by Aidan Gor

Welcome back! Currently, I have just finished the fifth week of my TRIP Journey! During the first couple of weeks, I learned how to use micropipettes and actually deal with the fruit flies themselves! It was very exciting, as this was my first time actually learning and applying lab skills to an experiment! After that, I conducted an experiment testing the effect of a high sugar diet on anxiety, and seeing if fenugreek could cancel out this effect. I collected behavioral data using the Open Field Test Assay to test how anxious the adult flies were and developmental data as well. I then presented my findings to the rest of the people in my session; doing this and receiving feedback was crucial in my development of becoming a scientific communicator. I still cannot believe the fact that we, as researchers, can conduct experiments on tiny model organisms, such as fruit flies, and apply our conclusions to humans!

For my independent project, I wanted to conduct an experiment that would be meaningful in the world of cognitive neuroscience, since I have family members with neurological conditions such as Autism and Parkinsons. I wanted to model these conditions in fruit flies, and after reading papers, brainstorming over weekends, and receiving some help from Dr. Purdy, Dr. Leystra, and my fellow TRIP peers, I finally decided on an experiment. I plan to test the effects of Huperzine-A, an active ingredient found in memory supplements, on memory in teens with some form of memory disturbance, such as Autism or ADHD. I plan to model this experiment by exposing flies and larvae to constant light to create memory disturbance. Then, I plan to conduct a larvae memory assay to assess changes in memory. I will also measure how memory was affected in flies without memory disturbance as well.

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Overall, I am very grateful for what I have already learned in this program so far, and I can’t wait to conduct my independent experiment!