One Last Stop on the TRIP by Warrin John

TRIP has sadly come to an end, but it has left me with an experience that I will never forget. Throughout these past three months, I learned a plethora of invaluable lab skills that I am now taking with me into my future. From conducting several assays to simply just sorting flies, TRIP taught me not just the how, but the why behind scientific research.

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For my independent project, I investigated whether selenium, a natural element, can mitigate the effects of oxidative stress. A big downside of oxidative stress is its impairment of locomotion, hence I conducted two locomotion assays. The first was the negative geotaxis assay, where I measured fly activity by seeing how high they climbed in 7 seconds. The second was larval locomotion where I tested how far the larvae crawl within 10 minutes. My results showed that Selenium actually does mitigate oxidative stress, something that aligned perfectly with my hypothesis. While I didn’t face many setbacks during my trials, managing time was a notable challenge. However, as the weeks went by, I became more efficient and confident in performing my experiment, and time soon stopped being an issue.

​This Saturday I am going to be presenting my project for the symposium, and I can’t wait! I am beyond grateful for all the help and guidance I received from Dr. Amanda Purdy, Dr. Theresea Austria, Dr. Silvia Valdes, Mr. Austin Cozzone, Phoebe Ting, Amritha Sakamuri, and Martie Corcoran. I’m truly honored to have been part of such an amazing opportunity!