TRIP EP 3: Bittersweet Finale by Austin Choi

How time has flown… I can not believe that I am writing my last blog post and have concluded my journey with TRIP.  The day I first stepped into the lab really feels like yesterday. However, I have come a long way since the beginning of TRIP.  I have mastered basic laboratory techniques such as micro pipetting and sorting flies.  Moreover, I have designed and completed my own independent project that addressed an original research question.  To me, that is something super special and fulfilling as actually researching and answering a question that I am truly interested in is an opportunity that I am rarely able to pursue both in school and out of school.  By providing such an opportunity, TRIP has provided me with invaluable insights into the research process and has shown me a glimpse of what my future as a scientist will look like.  And for that, I’m eternally grateful.

As I had covered in my previous blog post, my independent project studied the effect of microbiome health on motility. I am asking this question as it is a known fact that many relevant and common environmental factors, such as stress and lack of sleep, can reduce microbiome diversity, so I would like to study the specific effects of a compromised microbiome on health.  I picked to study motility in particular as I wanted to study the extent to which microbiome health is impactful since I don’t think that microbiome health and activity are the most directly related.  Moreover, a characteristic of modern society is its lack of physical activity, and I would want to see if this societal trend may be in part caused by the possible decreased motility from an unhealthy microbiome. To actually test this, I performed the negative geotaxis assay and larval locomotion assay in addition to collecting developmental data along the way.  I found that an unhealthy microbiome causes decreased activity and a healthy microbiome causes increased activity.  In addition, a cool little nuance that I discovered was that probiotics can help rescue antibiotic-compromised activity, but in adults only, not in larvae.  This is something intriguing that I would like to further research if I get the opportunity to do so.  As you can see, although my curiosity was satiated by conducting this research, the process and results opened up a whole new set of curiosities that I am itching to satisfy.  I think the beauty of research lies in that, and TRIP has provided a wonderful gateway for an aspiring scientist like myself to explore the realm of research.  ​

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Overall, TRIP has truly been one of the moments of my high school journey that I will cherish because of the amazing research and instruction and the incredible people I was able to meet along the way. I learned unique skills such as how to persevere and think through failure. I also learned how to tell a compelling story with my research by framing it in a certain way. I thank Dr. Leystra, Dr. Purdy, Dr. Valdes, Mr. Cozzone, Anoosha, and Niki for guiding me and my peers throughout this TRIP.  I also thank my labmates for being the most wonderful companions and yappers. 
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Signing off now,
Austin Choi