Archer Student STEM Symposium

Adding functional foods like fermented chickpeas into your diet might be all you need to effectively control Type 2 diabetes and obesity. While the healthcare costs involved with diabetes and obesity are high and the drugs used to control the disease can cause health risks, foods like fermented chickpeas that serve a therapeutic function would be a much more affordable and less harmful alternative for diabetes and obesity treatment. In my experiments, I am explore the change in fat content of C. elegans mutants that serve as a model system for Type 2 diabetes and obesity after exposed to fermented chickpea extract and BODIPY dye. The use of fluorescent dye added directly onto the growth media has allowed researchers the chance to visualize the fat content in C. elegans. My project uses fluorescence microscopy to assess the effect of fermented chickpeas extract on fat accumulation in nematodes.