The Last Stop Of My TRIP by Daniel Lee

It's been about 3 and a half months since I've joined TRIP and it felt like yesterday when I stepped into the lab for the first time. I remember being so nervous in the beginning. Those worries were unfounded and I can, with confidence, say that this has been an experience that I will never forget. Working with these awesome flies has been so cool!As mentioned in my previous blog, I looked into how sleep deprivation affects fruit fly social avoidance. A major reason why I was interested in measuring social avoidance was due to sleep deprivation being known to induce grogginess or low levels of activity. However, I decided to go big and wanted to understand how risk-taking behavior is impacted (by sleep deprivation) as well. I’m really excited to share my results at the big symposium next week!

Running two assays at once was hard and, in the beginning, took a hefty amount of time to run. For the first couple of times in the lab, I had to rush to even finish an hour late. I found it difficult to juggle tens of tasks at once and was shocked at how wrong my initial time estimates were. However, in these past five weeks in which I've been conducting my assays, I've become much more efficient with my lab skills such as fly sorting, transferring, and counting. I've also become much better at my assays as a whole. I'm honestly amazed at how fast I've become and how easy the tasks seem now! I tried my hardest to learn from my many mistakes and I am by no means an expert. In fact, I can confidently say that without mistakes I wouldn't have learned anything at all!

I'm incredibly grateful for TRIP, as it has allowed me to gain valuable experience and learn from like-minded peers and incredible TAs: Austin, Jenan, and Keith. I especially want to thank Dr. Purdy and Dr. Leystra for guiding us newbies with such patience and welcoming smiles. I've had so much fun in the lab and TRIP has changed me as a person and as a researcher. This journey has not only strengthened my collaborating skills but has also sharpened my desire to pursue a future in the lab. I'm sure that the end of this TRIP will lead to the start of another. Welp, that's all. This will, sadly, be my last blog post. It's been absolutely wonderful. See you all later!