The Final Brew of an Amazing TRIP! Akram Aboras

​Hello everyone! Thanks for following along with me throughout my time in TRIP and joining me on my final blog post to end this magical, fruit-fly filled journey! These last few months in TRIP have been nothing short of incredible, and gradually I’ve seen myself grow as a person and as a scientist with each careful stroke of my paintbrush to assist me in handling our delicate flies.  I’ve made so many memories and met so many amazing people through my experience in TRIP, and yet it feels like just a few days ago I was packing my backpack with my notebook, calculator, and the fear of venturing into the unknown of TRIP and what would come along with it. When I walked in, I was a curious student full of wonder about science and conducting research, and now I’m walking out with invaluable and unforgettable knowledge about what it means to be a scientist and all of the components that truly go into it. Every step of the way taught me something new regardless of what it was; whether it was making my replicate vials, preparing the food for my flies, performing my assays, or presenting my information, I learned something new that taught me more about not just how to be a scientist, but also how much there is left out there! 

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​After carefully thinking about my experiment, I decided on refining the focus of my research through my question since the last blog I wrote. Originally, my focus centered around seeing if Chamomile tea and Ashwagandha tea could mitigate the impacts of sleep deprivation on adult and adolescent anxiety levels, and I planned on simulating sleep deprivation through constant blue light exposure. After closer research though, I found out that sleep deprivation is just one of the many routes I could take through testing with blue light. While it does cause sleep deprivation, it also does so much more, like increasing long-term risks of chronic disease and eventually contributing to cognitive decline. These factors made me interested in broadening my focus, leading to my adjusted experimental question: Can Chamomile tea and Ashwagandha tea mitigate the effects of blue light on anxiety levels? 

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​This switch allowed me to not only broaden the scope of my research but also to consider blue light in its full-depth, neurodegeneration and all. With our growing screen time epidemic, it becomes more and more important to understand the alarming impacts of blue light on the well-being of adults and adolescents, as blue light’s present everywhere at all times through smartphones, televisions, tablets, and so much more! The harmful impacts of blue light have been found to contribute to anxiety and research has also shown anxiety becoming a greater mental health issue in recent years, especially for adolescents that still have developing brains. To go about my vision to consider all of these factors, I used 6 vials, one control, one blue light, one Chamomile tea, one Ashwagandha tea, one Chamomile tea combined with blue light, and one Ashwagandha tea combined with blue light. I hypothesized that in both the adults and the larvae blue light would increase anxiety, with both teas mitigating its impact by bringing anxiety back down, under the assumption that Ashwagandha would be more effective.

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​To test adult anxiety, I performed the Centrophobism assay, which directly translates to “fear of the center”. Fruit flies, as natural prey animals, tend to be afraid of the center since that’s where they are most vulnerable in nature. In the assay, I carefully placed 3 flies of each condition into their own set of 2-D confinements, where I recorded their movement for two minutes and analyzed how many times they crossed the center as well as how long they spent in the center. Center crossings are like flashes of bravery among the flies to cross dangerous territory, and center time is the willingness of the flies to remain in that territory. Higher amounts of these metrics show decreased anxiety, since more anxious flies are too fearful to cross the center nor spend time there. Despite this, both metrics don’t usually show up together since a fly that crosses the center a lot won’t be spending long in the center and vice versa. My results for this test showed that both Chamomile and Ashwagandha tea mitigated blue light’s impact on anxiety, with Chamomile doing so to a greater extent than Ashwagandha. Blue light made the flies more anxious, and while neither tea increased crossings further in response, they ended up increasing center time which indicated a decrease in anxiety, with Chamomile shockingly shooting up the average center time massively, surpassing all other conditions!

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​In the realm of testing adolescent anxiety, I performed the Larval Locomotion assay, where I took 5 larvae of each condition and carefully placed them on a piece of thermal paper corresponding to their condition, and painted each with blue dye. I watched as they squirmed around the paper and illustrated paths composed of swirls in hues of cerulean and cornflower as the blue faded over time. I measured the average distance they travelled in centimeters and measured distance digitally to make it easier. A farther distance travelled indicates less anxiety while a shorter distance indicates more anxiety since they’re not as willing to move around much which could be attributed to fearfulness. My results showed that blue light surprisingly seemed to decrease anxiety in the larvae by increasing distance, and Chamomile tea further increased the distance, lowering anxiety more while Ashwagandha tea brought distance back closer to normal. This test is usually used to assess activity and isn’t perfect for anxiety, since anxiety also has the potential to express itself as hyperactivity. 

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Through my five trials, I was able to conclude that both Chamomile and Ashwagandha tea can mitigate blue light’s impact on anxiety but may do so differently in adults compared to adolescents, which only interests me further. What I’ve gained throughout TRIP isn’t defined by my results, but rather my entire process of experimentation, research, methodology, and thought process. The process of science fundamentally relies on experimentation, and this program’s been an eye-opening experience for me to dip my toes into the ocean of scientific research that I hope to dive into later on in my career. I’ve learned that in science it’s more than okay to be incorrect and that sometimes that’s what pushes us further and actually helps us learn more and advance our understanding further. It’s been such an honor to have had the opportunity to be a part of TRIP, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking to expand their interests, learn new things, and grow not just scientifically but personally as well. I’d like to give a massive thank you to my instructors: Dr. Austria, Dr. Valdes, and Dr. Nick, for being the best instructors I could’ve ever asked for, teaching me so much every week while fostering my curiosity through kindness and guidance. I’d also like to give a huge thank you to our wonderful TAs, Sabina, Hannah, and Martie for always helping us through our experiments, and to all of my amazing classmates who were always a pleasure to be around and made time in the lab feel like home. I’m so excited to take what I’ve learned and see where it takes me as I venture further into science and research down the road. Life may get stressful at times, but withstanding it is what counts, and sometimes all you need is a great community and a soothing cup of tea to make it through and follow your dreams.

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