Booth Id:
ANIM026
Category:
Animal Sciences
Year:
2021
Finalist Names:
Lateef, Shan (School: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology)
Abstract:
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading international cause of morbidity
and mortality and can significantly disrupt brain physiology resulting in substance
abuse and sleep disorders. Drosophila melanogaster has been validated as a model to
explore drug addiction. The goals of this project were to utilize Drosophila melanogaster
and determine whether single TBI or concussion and recurrent TBI (rTBI) will: 1) Cause
an increased propensity to consume caffeine containing media. 2) Disrupt circadian
rhythms, by measuring circadian period (T) and rhythmicity index (RI). 3) Can be
mitigated by therapeutic hypothermia. A “high-impact trauma” (HIT) device
a was built, which used a spring-based mechanism to propel flies against the wall of a
vial, causing mechanical damage to the brain. Caffeine enriched and regular media
were presented to flies inside a constructed choice chamber. Hypothermia was induced
for 3 minutes in a refrigerator at temperature of 16C, after each hit was performed.
Circadian data was obtained by monitoring fly locomotor activity with the Drosophila
Activity Monitoring (DAM) system. Significantly more flies preferred the
caffeinated medium, after both single and recurrent TBI. Hypothermia showed some
mitigation of the effect of TBI causing caffeine addiction. The circadian rhythm appeared
more resilient to disruption after TBI, but increased numbers of arrhythmic flies,
particularly among the female cohort were observed. Recurrent TBI in
flies may predispose them to substance-abuse disorders and disrupted circadian
rhythms. Hypothermia offers some protection against such disruptions in brain
physiology.
Awards Won:
Serving Society Through Science: Second Award of $500
Third Award of $1,000