What is GIGEM? GIGEM, often written as “GIG’EM” is a signature yell and hand signal in Aggie (Texas A&M University) culture. The phrase dates back to around 1930 and originated at a Texas A&M vs. TCU football game when a yell leader used “Gig’Em” to refer to “gigging horned frogs” (TCU’s mascot) (It is also said that the phrase was coined by “Pinkie” Downs, a member of the Texas A&M Board of Regents). This phrase has since become part of the Aggie tradition and it is even used in official university letters and emails. The hand signal of “Gig’Em”, making a fist with a  thumb up, representing the action of frog giging, became the first Southwestern Conference hand sign.

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We named our high-throughput software suite for Drosophila sleep analysis GIGEM, Group Isolation Gauge Effect Metrics. This software is designed to manage large population datasets from multi-batch experiments. In a method paper, we demonstrated the power of GIGEM by characterizing social isolation-induced sleep phenotypes in Sleep Inbred Panel lines after both acute and chronic social isolation, using 5670 animals. GIGEM enabled an extensive analysis and data exploration of social isolation-induced changes in sleep parameters. We believed that GIGEM is a powerful open-source software for Drosophila sleep phenotyping in large-scale, multi-batch studies.

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One subtle reason the name GIGEM resonated here is that Aggie culture is deeply social. It’s built around belonging, shared identity, and showing up for one another. Those social structures are not just traditions—they are protective factors for societal well-being, resilience, and mental health. Our research and GIGEM are motivated by the same principle: social connection is biologically consequential.