During a typical week, it’s not uncommon to find Ramsha Gul ’25 in one of Bryant’s research labs dissecting the brains of fruit flies. The Bryant senior is using these tiny, rust-colored insects to determine if alcohol addiction causes depression or depression causes alcohol addiction. As a second layer to her experimentation, she’s studying serotonin’s role within regulating voluntary alcohol consumption in fruit flies.

“We know serotonin plays a part in memory consolidation, especially for these types of addictive memories; however, we don't know for sure what circuits are involved and how it looks on a molecular level,” says Gul, a Biology major on the pre-med track.

Gul’s research is part of the Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. Running from May through July, students from Rhode Island’s colleges and universities conduct research in biotechnology, cancer, biology, chemistry, pharmacy, neuroscience, engineering, and health sciences. The paid, 10-week-long program then closes with the RI Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium (SURS) — an annual event where students share their findings with the larger scientific community.

“It's always fun to see the different types of research because you’re so focused on your individual area for 10 weeks,” says Gul, who presented at this year’s symposium on July 26.

For her addiction and depression research, Gul used FLIC, a newly developed consumption assay to continuously measure alcohol-related feeding behaviors in flies. She notes that the flies — who also go by their scientific name Drosophila — were given access to either 5 percent sucrose or 5 percent sucrose containing ethanol.

Starting with a 5 percent ethanol concentration in one of the sucrose samples, she gradually increased the percentage to 10, 15, and 20. She then looked for the dosage in which the flies start to show preference for alcohol, with preliminary data suggesting that the flies develop preference for 15 percent alcohol but not 10 percent.

Gul began working in the lab under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Kristin Scaplen, Ph.D., in May of 2022 — her first inside look into the SURF program. From learning how to tell male and female flies apart to collaborating with other Bryant undergrads and coding data, Gul’s time in the research lab has provided her with hands-on learning that is readying her for a career within the science and healthcare fields; it’s an opportunity that not everyone has the luxury of having, she says.

“Talking to my friends from other colleges, they tell me how hard it is for them to get research opportunities,” says Gul, who’s currently applying to medical school. “Working in Dr. Scaplen’s lab has given me the ability to make my resume more competitive while also getting a head start in the world of research before medical school.”

Working in the lab has also piqued her interest in continuing Drosophila-related or addiction-based research post-graduation since fruit flies can be used for a variety of studies, including cancer and genetics. She likes the idea of scientists being behind the scenes conducting experiments to give healthcare professionals the tools they need to provide effective care.

Gul was one of three Bryant SURF students conducting research this summer. Lily Kimball ’27 and Isaiah Schmidtke ’25 looked at a DNA repair enzyme PolQ and compared human and zebrafish function. Working with Bryant’s Assistant Professor of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Steven Weicksel, Ph.D., and Rhode Island College collaborators, their goal was to see if zebrafish can be used to model the role of PolQ in human melanoma. Another undergraduate, Ethan Hall ’27, conducted National Science Foundation-funded research in the Reid Lab at Bryant, which is run by Biological and Biomedical Sciences Professor Christopher Reid, Ph.D.

While her final SURF symposium was bittersweet, Gul says being surrounded by hardworking student researchers has been incredibly inspiring and that their dedication and passion fuels her own drive to excel and contribute meaningfully to the field of addiction studies. Still, nothing will quite beat the gratification she felt after her first symposium.

“As a student who immigrated from Pakistan to America at 14, I never imagined I was going to be able to do something like this; however, I’ve been given a platform to showcase my research, and it’s a very proud moment for me,” Gul says.