We are really excited to announce the 14th Young Investigators’ Meeting 2022. This virtual meeting will be held from 3-5 May, followed by the PDF Satellite Meeting spanning 9-12 May. Please applybefore 25 February for illuminating talks by renowned scientists, poster presentations, and panel discussions that focus on a wide variety of topics, including choosing interdisciplinary science, building a research group/community, funding opportunities, and open science.
Another upcoming event is our webinar on ‘Digital education through the lens of NEP 2020’ on 17 February. Digital literary expert Charu Dogra Rawat will discuss initiatives and strategies pertaining to digital education recommended in the National Education Policy 2020, and the roles of various stakeholders in realising these recommendations.
We wish you to remain safe while enjoying all our articles, podcasts, and webinars, and tell us what you think of them through your comments. You can write to us at hello@indiabioscience.org and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you wish to write for us in our news and columns sections, email us a brief description of your story in ~100-200 words. To get instant updates of our upcoming podcasts, please subscribe to our IndiaBiospeaks podcast channel on Spotify and other popular podcast apps. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to enjoy all webinars in one place and to our newsletter to get the latest updates.
Scroll down for highlights of our recent activities.
ACTIVITIES BY TEAM INDIABIOSCIENCE
How to Crack a Career in Science
We conducted a session on ‘How to Crack a Career in Science' at the India Science Fest on 21 January, 2022. The session was an informal conversation with Varun Bhalerao, Ayesha Chaudury, Rajendra Kondapalli, and Sri Sailaja Nori, all of whom studied science early on in their careers and are now in diverse career paths of science. The attendees had a chance to hear the journeys of these individuals and were acquainted with what a ‘career’ means and the possibilities of science careers. The recording of the session can be accessed here.
Well Trodden Less Taken
Zill-e-Anam, our Program Coordinator (Outreach & International Grants Awareness Program) was invited to speak at the University of Delhi in the lecture series ‘Well Trodden Less Taken.’ She talked about ‘Expanding Horizon and Scope: Recognising Purpose and Building Your Career’ through the example of her own life and career journey.
The guest of the fifth episode of ‘In Conversation with a Mentor’ was Manju Bansal, who is a professor in the Theoretical Biophysics group, Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She is the Founding Director of the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology at Bangalore.
With the 2nd IndiaBioscience Outreach Grants, select scientists step out of their labs to connect with communities beyond academia. In this piece, Hansika looks at the initiatives being funded by IndiaBioscience in the current edition.
A recent study by Rajan Sankaranarayanan’s group from the CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Hyderabad has found a novel mechanism of lipid metabolism. This opens up new avenues to understand the production of lipid-based bioactive molecules such as antibiotics.
The Infosys Prize awardees last year were felicitated on 2 December, 2021. They represent the different disciplines of Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. The awardees have been recognised and lauded for extraordinary contributions in their respective fields.
In the second article as part of community voices for international grants and fellowships, Savneet talks about the impact of an international collaboration early on during her independent research career and how it turned out to be an invaluable mentoring experience too.
The levels of nucleic acids are enhanced in the blood of individuals affected by certain diseases. This understanding can be used for non-invasive diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, cancers, genetic conditions in the fetus, and neurological disorders. In this article, Ambika Kurbet gives an overview of the use of cell-free circulating DNA in diagnosis.
In this article, Shreeya, Stutee and Karishma recount their experiences on working remotely on a new research area during the pandemic, the former two as students and the latter as mentor. Their project led to a publication. Biofilm-AMP is now a published structural and functional repository of AMPs for biofilm studies. The work was also published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.
Intrigued by the rich flora and fauna in the campus of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and the nearby forests of the Western Ghats of India, researchers from the institute examine the complexities of mutualistic relationships in nature.
Molecular biology textbooks teach us that during gene expression, only one strand of DNA is used to synthesize RNA. Does this mean that only one of the strands of an entire DNA duplex is functional? What does the other strand do? Which one is called the ‘sense’ strand? Is it the same as the ‘template’ strand? These are some questions that often baffle undergraduate students of biology. In this article, educator Maya Murdeshwar of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai describes how she approaches these concepts in her classroom.
What is our current scientific understanding of SARS-CoV-2? How do we trace its origins? How do new variants arise? What predictions can we make for the impact of the Omicron variant in India? How effective are the current vaccines against currently known variants? How do we see this virus and our immunity to it evolving in the long run? Vijeta Raghuram explored these and more such questions in an interactive online discussion with the eminent virologist Shahid Jameel on 12 January, 2022.
Why is it important to engage with the topic of mental health in a classroom? What might such an engagement look like? What has been the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of students, teachers, people in isolation and the elderly? What can teachers do to support their family and students, and strengthen their own mental & emotional resilience? Vijeta Raghuram discussed these and more such questions with Dr Avantika Bhatia, an assistant professor of psychology at Ashoka University and a psychotherapist for adults in an online interactive discussion on 8 December, 2021.
We continue to update this interactive map/table showing the geo-distribution of life science researchers in India. The data that populates this resource is collected from a survey among the life scientists in India and published here with their informed consent. If you are a life scientist in India and if you would like to be featured on this database, please fill this form.
FROM THE COMMUNITY
Public Communication by Scientific Institutions in India
The Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology-India (FAST-India) has released a brief working paper on public communication by scientific institutions in India. The paper provides a preliminary assessment of the status of public communication efforts by scientific institutions in India, its comparison with other countries, and proposes possible ways to build and enhance these activities in the country. The working paper can be found here. Feedback/inputs for this working paper can be emailed to sarah@fast-india.org by 15 February, 2022.
COVID-19: Looking Ahead
There will be a fireside chat with Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) and Chief Medical Advisor to the US President on 2 February. This event is hosted by Janelia Research Campus, US and is part of the 2022 Life Science Across the Globe series.
The Indo-German Research Day
The second digital edition of The Indo-German Research Day will be held on 24 February, organized by the German Centre for Research and Innovation (DWIH), New Delhi. Explore the Indian and German research landscape, join interactive discussions, and discover opportunities for research funding and projects across disciplines. This event offers a virtual fair with 24 research institutions and a platform to enhance your international research cooperation. We will be exhibiting the International Grants Awareness Program (iGAP) at The Indo-German Research Day. For details and registration, visit: https://www.dwih-newdelhi.org/en/event/indo-german-research-day-2/
