What an amazing TRIP! by Hanaa Salem

I am so glad to be back for this third and final blog. It has been an incredible journey overall, as I learned so many assays and got to know the fun personalities of the TA’s, teachers, and my peers. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program! It truly allowed me to explore the experience of working in a lab and a research based career. Not only did it give me this exposure, but also gave me a way to explore my interest in neuroscience and neurodegeneration—both across developing larva and fully developed adult fruit flies.

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My independent project essentially looked at motility levels across different experimental conditions. My 4 vials consisted of a control, sole hydrogen peroxide, sole vitamin B6, and a combination of both hydrogen peroxide and vitamin B6. Each compound's dosage was scaled down to be safe for fruit fly level, done through serial dilutions. I specifically looked at vitamin B6 in mitigating neurodegeneration in fruit flies due to its water soluble properties and how it helps in neurotransmitter synthesis. I also looked at hydrogen peroxide in order to induce oxidative stress, similar to the oxidative stress that contributes towards neurodegeneration development. There aren't currently any true treatments for neurodegenerative disorders, so I wanted to look further into how diet would play a role in helping to slow down or address the effects of neurodegeneration–something that we can control.

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A key indicator of neurodegeneration is a decrease in motility levels, presenting in the form of tremors, slow movement, and rigidity. In order to look at how motility levels are affected by a change in diet I conducted the negative geotaxis assay for adult motility and the larval locomotion assay for motility levels for larva. I learned so much through this process, from sorting flies, to taking accountability, and also learning to communicate my ideas to a large audience. I really enjoyed sharing my findings (vitamin B6 did help to somewhat mitigate the negative effects of hydrogen peroxide) to all our parents at the final symposium and the Q&A session really had me thinking hard!

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I’d like to end my TRIP journey by thanking all the amazing people who helped me along the way. Thank you, Dr. Purdy, for always being helpful with everything–my serial dilutions would not have been possible without you! Thank you to Dr. Austria for doing such an amazing job on leading this program, always staying on top of everything, and of course the food. Thank you, Dr. Valdes, for having such a warm smile and being patient with all my late assignments. Thank you to Mr. Cozzone for talking to me through my assays and always starting the conversation first—truly made me feel like the TRIP family and helped me get through the wait times for my assays. Thank you to our amazing TA’s: Marty, Phoebe, and Amritha—Saturday mornings were not for the weak! I would also like to thank all my peers for helping me get through the program and troubleshooting together. And finally a huge thank you to my parents for driving me to and from the program, listening to my practice talks, and always being there for me. As I am sad that this program has come to an end (never thought I would be upset to get my Saturdays back) I will definitely be staying in touch—can’t get rid of me that easily... 
- Lab Jail’s Favorite Inmate