The end of an era by Sophia Jesteen

We’re at the finale! Our adventures with TRIP are coming to an end and I cannot express how much I’ll miss working with everyone in the lab. Being able to make so many friends and learn so much these past few weeks has really made me realize how much I love lab work. For my independent project, I’m studying the effects of Metformin on long term motility and development. Though I had the Negative Geotaxis Assay, which is relatively not too difficult, my second trial had so many issues. I’m convinced now that my greatest obstacle with my project was working with ice. While doing the Negative Geotaxis Assay, you tap the flies down to the bottom of their vials to study how fast they can respond against gravity. In order to separate your flies from the food vial (since the flies can get stuck in the food when you ta them down), ice helps keep them from flying away. I struggled so much with my flies getting stuck to the condensation of my petri dish. During my second trial, I had limited flies in my vials that survived, but coupled with the effects of ice, most flies wet, or even lost, their wings, preventing them from flying during the assay. Thankfully I didn’t lose all my flies! However, I did have a lot of flies that simply couldn’t perform the assay properly. ​

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I hope my struggles haven’t deterred you! I promise it is all worth it! Everyone faces a little hardship while performing their independent projects. Especially since most of us have never done an independent project, Dr. Purdy and Miss. P really helped ease the stress. The instructors for TRIP are phenomenal! I can’t thank Pooja, Surali, and Erica enough for their help as lab assistants! ​