Columns
Recent Columns
Isolation enriched: Setting up a lab during the pandemic
Pavan Agarwal is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Molecular Neurosciences of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). In this invited article, he recounts his rollercoaster journey of setting up an independent research group during a pandemic as a newly returned young investigator in India.
Posted on in Personal Experience, Young Investigators & Networking and Collaboration
It has been a great Wellcome back!
Sudarshan Gadadhar
Posted on in Personal Experience, Young Investigators, Mentorship
Biology with Tibetan Buddhist monks: What I’m taking back to my college classroom from teaching at a monastery
Daniel Pierce
Learning from a joint lab culture
Prasoon Kumar
Posted on in Personal Experience, Outreach, Young Investigators
Navigating the early-career track as a faculty fellow in the Indian science ecosystem
Karishma Kaushik
Posted on in Women in Science, Personal Experience, Young Investigators
A tale of two labs and one home
Nirmalya Sen
Conversations Older →
10 Leaders, 10 Questions: Anuradha Lohia
Anuradha Lohia is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the Presidency University, Kolkata. She served as the founding Chief Executive Officer of the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance from 2009-2012. She is the recipient of several prestigious national and international grants and awards. In this interview, she chats with IndiaBioscience about her thoughts on leadership.
A balanced team asking interdisciplinary, fundamental, and venturous questions wins HFSP
Tamal Das is the Head of the Collective Cellular Dynamics (CCD) Lab at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Hyderabad. He has been awarded the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) grant for the year 2022. In this interview, Tamal discusses his work and how his team won the HFSP funding.
Let’s not miss the grasses for the trees: In conversation with Mahesh Sankaran
Yashada Kulkarni
10 Leaders, 10 Questions: Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay
Shreya Ghosh
Science as a community enterprise: In conversation with Mriganka Sur
Shreya Ghosh
A computational tool that can rapidly identify and analyse coronavirus mutations
Susheela
Building an international mental health support group for people in science
Zill-e-Anam
Education Older →
Biology with Tibetan Buddhist monks: What I’m taking back to my college classroom from teaching at a monastery
Writing a modern biology textbook for the Indian classroom: the experience with iThink Biology
In December 2021, Azim Premji University inaugurated a free online textbook, called iThink Biology. In this article, a faculty at the University and an author of the textbook shares the thoughts that went behind its creation and why it is a unique educational resource for Indian undergraduate students and educators of biology.
Posted on in Education, Teaching, Undergraduate & Interdisciplinarity
Talk with teachers: Blurring boundaries between arts and sciences
Radha Gopalan & Chitra Ravi
Posted on in Education, Women in Science, Teaching, Science communication
The tigress and her cubs
Yashada Kulkarni
Posted on in Women in Science, Teaching, Personal Experience
Teaching biology using analogies
Rachana Acharya
Posted on in Biotechnology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Teaching, Undergraduate, Education
How I tested my students through memes
Aniruddha Datta Roy
Posted on in Evolutionary Biology, Teaching, Undergraduate, Education
Everything you need to know about framing a research hypothesis
Adita Joshi
Exploring Science Older →
What’s new in peer review? Initiatives by the academic community
Traditional peer review processes are known for being opaque and long-drawn, causing significant delays in publication and much anxiety to the authors. Thanks to the academic community's efforts, the process is evolving to reduce the time burden and increase transparency and inclusivity. This article describes some of the novel peer review models and their pros and cons.
How do cells edit mistakes? A neglected enzyme sheds light
Cells perform a complex feat of picking and proofreading amino acids for protein synthesis. Several aspects of this translation process were shrouded in mystery for a long time. This article traverses Rajan Sankaranarayanan’s two decades of seminal research that decoded some of the checkpoints and helped biologists better understand the error-free protein translation mechanisms.
Diverse communities of bacteria and humans – lessons learnt
Jithin Sunny & Bins Sebastian
Free-floating DNA in precision medicine
Ambika Kurbet
Exploring the complexities of mutualism in nature
Shatarupa Sarkar
Tackling antibiotic resistance
Mousumi Saha
Why do we have so many different tests for COVID-19?
Somdatta Karak
Indian Scenario Older →
Research assessment and preprints in India: Workshop summary
On 7 June, ASAPbio hosted a workshop in collaboration with IndiaBioscience and Open Access India, to discuss preprints and the value they can add to research assessment frameworks in India. Here are the highlights of the workshop.
This article was also published by ASAPbio.
Spreading the word about the Narcondam Island and its beautiful hornbills
Narcondam Island of Andaman is the only home for the Narcondam hornbills. Rohit Naniwadekar and his team ran a science outreach project to spread awareness about the vulnerable island ecosystems and sensitise communities who live and work around these areas. The team is also an awardee of 1st IndiaBioscience Outreach Grant. In this article, Joel uncovers the journey, experiences, logistics, highs and lows of running an outreach program intended for on ground stakeholders.
Bridging the gap through WhatsApp
Rupsy Khurana
Behind the scenes with Talk To A Scientist
Joel P. Joseph
Scientific social responsibility: a policy to nurture science–society connect
Aditi Jain
De-stigmatizing mental health care in India: a way forward
Anushka Banerjee
Call for a national strategy to make biomedical research more human-relevant
P Surat
Posted on in Health & Medicine, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Policy, Events
Journey of a YI Older →
Isolation enriched: Setting up a lab during the pandemic
Pavan Agarwal is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Molecular Neurosciences of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). In this invited article, he recounts his rollercoaster journey of setting up an independent research group during a pandemic as a newly returned young investigator in India.
Posted on in Personal Experience, Young Investigators & Networking and Collaboration
It has been a great Wellcome back!
Sudarshan Gadadhar is a Scientist at Centre for Inflammation and Tissue Homeostasis of inStem, Bengaluru. In this invited article, he shares the significance of mentorship, collaboration and networking in establishing an independent research group as a young investigator in India.
Posted on in Personal Experience, Young Investigators & Mentorship
Learning from a joint lab culture
Prasoon Kumar
Posted on in Personal Experience, Outreach, Young Investigators
A tale of two labs and one home
Nirmalya Sen
The journey to the state of disequilibrium!
Neetha Balaram
Posted on in Other, Women in Science, Personal Experience, Young Investigators
Returning home and integrating with Indian Science
Subramanian Sankaranarayanan
Posted on in Biotechnology, Personal Experience, Young Investigators
From being alien to native: my journey and everything in between
Ratna Ghosal
Opinion Older →
Friendzymes wins gold at the iGEM 2021 Jamboree
Navigating the early-career track as a faculty fellow in the Indian science ecosystem
Karishma S Kaushik returned to India in 2018 as a Ramalingaswami fellow to start her independent research group at Savitribai Phule Pune University. Now, as a fifth-year faculty fellow in the Indian science ecosystem, in this article, she shares specific considerations to enable colleagues in navigating this professional opportunity.
Posted on in Women in Science, Personal Experience & Young Investigators
A glance back as we move forward into 2023
Shantala Hari Dass
Transferable skills you gain during your PhD
Adita Joshi
5 Best Apps for Researchers: Apps that Every Researcher Should Know About
Sunaina Singh
How do people perceive nanotechnology? View through a sociological lens
Ankita Rathore
Choosing a scientific journal for publication: My modus operandi
Divya Singh Tapaswi
Posted on in Personal Experience, Research, Networking and Collaboration
@IndiaBioscience Older →
YIM 2022 – Forging bonds (Part 2)
The 14th Young Investigators' Meeting (YIM 2022) was held online from 4-6 May 2022. Sixty young investigators and an equal number of post-doctoral fellows enthusiastically participated and gleaned insights from several senior scientists, guest speakers, panellists and institutional representatives. This article is the second in a two-part series reporting on the proceedings.
YIM 2022 – Forging bonds (Part 1)
For the past thirteen years, the Young Investigators' Meeting (YIM) — IndiaBioscience's (IBS) annual flagship event — has facilitated young scientists in life sciences to catapult their scientific careers by providing a platform for networking and mentoring from seniors and experts in their field. This article is the first of a two-part report on this year’s event, covering highlights of the three-day YIM proceedings.
The untold stories: bringing to light a researcher’s scientific journey
Anusheela Chatterjee
YIM 2022: A message from the organisers
Geethanjali Monto
My science journalism internship with IndiaBioscience: Five things I learned
Sumeet Kulkarni
IndiaBioscience: knitting together the life sciences community
N. Ramakrishnan
Reflecting on the journey and impact of the "Crafting your Career" program
Smita Jain
PhD Cafe Older →
A PhD for the love of wisdom
What is a PhD – is it a certificate or a way of life? What is the significance of adorning the black robe? Is there a connection between science and philosophy? Is there a historical background to it? In this article, Jithin pays tribute to the doctorate and how it can drive away naive realism and bring substantive reasoning into our lives. He pays homage to the great minds —Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Whitehead and Einstein —true lovers of knowledge.
Choosing to be a mother while pursuing a PhD
Enam Reyaz, a student at the Jamia Hamdard Institute of Molecular Medicine (JH-IMM), recounts her physical and emotional roller-coaster of experience embracing pregnancy and motherhood while pursuing a PhD degree; what helped her challenge the taboos and what more can be done by research institutions to support expectant mothers.
An Introvert’s Guide to Networking
Vanshika Singh
Do's and Don’ts for a healthy student-advisor relationship
Parul Anup
From Challenges to Lessons
Zill-e-Anam
Posted on in Career Development, Personal Experience, Advice
Juggling science and life: The trapeze that kept me swinging
Shobha Anilkumar
The Doc Mom
Chandrima Home
Stories from Scientists Older →
Driving and sustaining change in academic research culture as an eLife Community Ambassador
The eLife Community Ambassadors Program aims to empower a global community of early career researchers to network and take action to create a culture that benefits both science and scientists. In this article, Aalok Varma, an Ambassador in the 2019-2020 cohort, shares his experiences and learnings while working on various initiatives of eLife.
Posted on in Career Development, Ethics & Networking and Collaboration
Stories from the community: Trainee Professional Development Award granting exposure to young Indian scientists
In the ninth article as part of community voices for international grants and fellowships, Prachi shares her journey to networking and building collaborations with the help of Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Trainee Professional Development Award (TPDA).
Posted on in Neuroscience, Career Development, Funding & Personal Experience
Stories from the community: DAAD PhD research grant
Shvaita Madhuri
Stories from the community: Small grant with a big reward for Ben Barres Spotlight Award
Geetanjali Chawla
Posted on in Career Development, Funding, Personal Experience
Stories from the community: Rhodes Scholarship
Ritika Mukherji
Stories from the community: HFSP Fellowship
Shubham Singh
Stories from the community: How a cold email led to an international collaborative grant
Karishma Kaushik
Posted on in Health & Medicine, Funding, Personal Experience, Networking and Collaboration
Funding Older →
10 pointers for the MSCA application
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) funding programme is an opportunity for researchers to acquire new skills through international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility. MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships' call for proposals is currently open until October 2021. Here, Jaishree Subrahmaniam, who has been awarded a Fellowship in 2020, shares 10 pointers for the application process with Bhawana George.
10 pointers for the last mile of the EMBO-YIP application
The Young Investigator Programme (YIP), offered by the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), is open to young investigators in the life sciences who have started their independent research groups within the last 4 years. YIP facilitates and supports the career advancement of these early-career scientists via opportunities to network and collaborate. Arun K. Shukla, Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) and an EMBO YI shares his 10 pointers for the last mile of the application process
Posted on in Career Development, Funding & Young Investigators