Time Flies When You're Having Fun! by Sophia Rajan

Hi everyone! I can believe we’re almost halfway done with our TRIP experience! These past 5 weeks have been really helpful as I’ve learned many important lab skills such as calculating concentrations, performing assays, making grape plates, and collecting data. I’ve also grown significantly as a student. I can ask better questions, provide feedback to my peers, and effectively implement the feedback I receive. I am especially thankful for Dr. Leystra, Dr. Purdy, Dr. Valdes, our TAs, and my peers for all their help and support.

For my kickoff experiment, I considered the effects of ginkgo biloba and head trauma on anxiety. To conduct this experiment, I used the open-field assay. This required me to sort the flies on ice and observe them in chambers to measure their anxiety levels. After this experiment, we gave presentations to our peers about the procedure of our kickoff experiment. We addressed aspects we excelled at, and others that we struggled with. We also provided suggestions based on our experience of how to yield better results. This was really helpful in developing my presentation skills as we gave and received feedback from each other and our instructors. It also provided me with inspiration for my individual experiment. 

For my individual experiment, I want to explore the transgenerational effects of caffeine on anxiety. I was interested in observing caffeine and anxiety as both of these factors are significant in our society. 31% of adults experience anxiety and the average American consumes approximately 1000 mg of caffeine per day, while the FDA recommends limiting caffeine to 400 mg daily. Additionally, these two factors correlate as some of their symptoms overlap, such as increased heart rate and restlessness. Beyond this, it is believed that overindulgence in caffeine can cause feelings of anxiety.

I can’t wait to start my experiment next week!