Where I Am at Right Now! by Ravi Arya

So far in TRIP, I have completed by first screen project and presentation where I analyzed the effects of St. John’s Wort and Darkness on fruit fly anxiety/overall fitness levels. The experiment was very interesting and was definitely a new experience for me. Getting to conduct my own experiment was super fun and educational. I had a couple of issues with flies… well, flying away, but luckily, I was able to collect conclusive data.

---

I found that the St. John’s Wort drug enhanced energy levels in flies (which was seen through their monitored activity) and long exposure to darkness severely hindered energy levels in flies (which was seen through their lack of activity). This data could be used to derive conclusions on the effects of darkness on depression in humans, and how St. John’s Wort can counteract that which, to me, is pretty cool! I presented this information yesterday to my peers, the instructors, and the assistant instructors, and it went pretty well! This was the first scientific lab-based presentation I had ever given!

---

Now, though, it's time to start planning for my independent research project. I have a couple ideas flowing around in my head right now. One of them is to test the effect of Curcumin on overall fly cognitive capability. To phrase this as a question, how does the addition of Curcumin in fly diets impact fly memory? I would also like to test this against the adverse effects of sleep deprivation and see if there are any correlations

Another idea I had was to test the effects of long exposure to loud sounds on fly health and test the drug donepezil (used to treat Alzheimer's) against this and see what I could find. There are a lot of ideas going that I am going to have to narrow down as we progress into the next week of TRIP. I cannot wait to get started!
​