The End of Our TRIP by Sophia Rajan

I can’t believe 3 months flew by that fast! As my journey with TRIP comes to an end I can reflect back and see the extraordinary amount of growth my lab mates and I have made. We’ve learned so many useful skills and built friendships that will positively impact us throughout our whole lives. I’m so grateful for all of the help and support throughout these past 3 months from Dr. Alyssa Leystra, Dr. Amanda Purdy, Dr. Silvia Valdes, Mr. Austin Cozzone, Anoosha Shukla, and Niki Wang. ​

I focused my independent project on the impact caffeine consumption has on anxiety. To test this, I set up four vials, which consisted of a control and three different concentrations of caffeine. After letting the flies live in these vials for a week, I conducted the open field test to measure anxiety in the flies. I did 4 repetitions of this and averaged the data. From that, I was able to conclude that caffeine does cause an increase in anxiety. In addition to discovering the impact caffeine has on anxiety, I also collected developmental data and found that caffeine consumption reduces health and has a negative impact on development. 

With this being said, I also had many setbacks while running my experiments. I found myself unable to collect all of my desired data some days because of external factors and accidentally poisoned a vial of flies with caffeine (oops). It was due to the supportive TRIP environment built by the instructors, TAs, and my labmates that encouraged me to persist even when I faced challenges. 

​I am incredibly grateful for everything I’ve learned from TRIP and can’t wait to see how this experience will lead me in the future!