Peace Out Flies! by Conrad Schaumburg

After taking Advanced Chemistry this year and not having a single live lab due to the pandemic, it was exciting to be in the laboratory.  I found out that lab work is pretty fun as long as you don’t have to move around tiny little fruit flies with a paintbrush.  I enjoyed the chemistry aspects a lot more.  This realization will be helpful when I start college next year and work in a research lab again.

My project investigated whether Xylitol has systemic effects on health in fruit flies.  Xylitol is an artificial sweetener that is used for its cavity-preventing effects and as a low-calorie sweetener to add weight loss. At high doses, Xylitol has been found to have ill effects on the gut microbiome and gastrointestinal health. I wanted to see if the potential side effects outweighed the benefits of Xylitol use.  I was especially interested in this question in the context of adolescent development because my sister and I chew Xylitol gum.  I measured overall health by looking at how far larvae move on average when given different doses of Xylitol.  I assumed that healthy larvae move farther than sick larvae.

The program went by very fast and not at all as expected.  I wasn’t able to collect all the data that I aspired to.  One of my assays didn’t work because the flies died.  I wasn’t able to do another assay I had hoped to do because I didn’t have enough time.  However, I was able to collect the main data that I aimed to.  This taught me that biological research is difficult and unpredictable at times.  Since I plan to become a researcher, it is good to learn this earlier in my career than later.