Trials & Triumphs of TRIP by Carmen Bonner

As I am working through finalizing my data and symposium presentation, I have been reflecting on these past weeks that flew by. Every day in the lab greatly expanded my knowledge and broadened my experience. In just ten short weeks, Dr. Austria, Dr. Purdy, Dr. Valdes, and Mr. Cozzone taught me brand new skills and helped me hone them until they became muscle memory. In Week 1, I was scared to use micropipettes and talk to new people. In Week 10, I could micropipette smoothly and joke with our lovely TA’s about stealing Martie’s job (sorry Martie. You are an irreplaceable social media manager). I’m going to miss everyone and everything in the lab, except maybe the smell of fly morgues

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As mentioned in my previous blog, I wanted to study the effects of prebiotics and probiotics on the gut microbiome and overall health of the organism. I fed some flies prebiotics, some probiotics, and some a combination of both. I used the Negative Geotaxis assay and Microbiome Assay. The Negative Geotaxis Assay measures activity and energy levels by calculating the percentage of flies that can fly past a certain threshold in a set amount of time, allowing me to quantify the health of the flies. The Microbiome Assay is a bit rough on the flies; I had to wash a few flies from each vial in ethanol, killing them and the bacteria on their outsides. Then I had to remove the ethanol, add MRS broth, and crush up the flies to release the bacteria on their insides. Lastly, I plated this fly-broth solution on an Agar plate that helped bacterial colonies grow so I could count them. This process involved a lot of careful steps, autoclaved materials, and troubleshooting. I am immensely grateful for Dr. Austria’s help with all of this. She patiently guided me through the assay process, brought in materials from Fox Chase Cancer Center, and helped me work around any issues I encountered. I would have been utterly lost without her, so special shoutout to Dr. Austria.

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The issues we had mainly stemmed from growing the bacteria. We had to figure out the best ratios of flies to MRS broth and the best Agar to grow the colonies on via trial and error. Ultimately, we found the perfect combination, allowing me to get three solid replicates of data. This process, along with the processes of running the Negative Geotaxis assay, quantifying development of the flies, making new vials for new replicates, and sorting flies takes up a lot of time, more time than I had estimated, most weeks. Myself and my fellow TRIP mates are very thankful for the patience of our instructors and TAs that put up with us arriving early and staying late. One plus of running late, however, was mixing with Session B. I got to interact with even more cool people

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I am forever appreciative of everything I learned at TRIP and everyone I met. This was truly a life-altering experience. I know it will help me with whatever I decide to do in life, but for now, goodbye everyone! Thanks for reading!