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Tracing the ancestry of Veddas of Sri Lanka
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The Vedda tribe is one of the least studied populations of Sri Lanka. They have intrigued scientists and historians alike due to their unique linguistic and cultural characteristics.
Recent genome study by Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Ruwandi Ranasinghe and K Thangaraj take us to understanding the tribe better. The study finds the Veddas are offshoot of the earliest inhabitants of India, and they remained isolated from the other Sri Lankans.
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Demystifying synuclein and Parkinson's Disease
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α-synuclein has puzzled Parkinson's Disease researchers. It is a protein whose function in healthy tissue is not known. It is intrinsically unstructured and tends to misfold. And these misfolded α-synuclein are infamous as Lewy body, found in brain tissues of Parkinson's Disease patients. But the details of these bodies yet remain to be understood enough to figure out their role in the disease.
Recent paper from Swasti Raychaudhari’s lab have shown α-synuclein is present in two kinds of inclusion bodies in cell culture. One is the Lewy body-like inclusion bodies, in the form of the longer filamentous structures around the nuclei of cells. The other are the Syn-aggresomes, that are small dot-like structures, present around the centrosomes of cells. The aggresome structures are important in degrading the misfolded α-synuclein present in it. The Syn-aggresomes have earlier been confused as Lewy bodies.
Also, this study shows that Syn-aggresomes titrate out α-synuclein from Lewy body-like structures. This helps in keeping the size of Lewy body-like structures in check, which when overgrown injure cell organelles, especially the nuclear lamina.
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Detailing the RNAi pathway mechanisms
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Genes are expressed through mRNA. But mRNA expression is controlled by non-coding RNA-associated proteins through the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. One of these proteins, R2D2 guides Dicer, a key RNAi enzyme to target double-stranded RNA to suppress an mRNA.
Latest study from Mandar Deshmukh's lab underscores the importance of two lysine residues in R2D2's N-terminal region for binding to double-stranded RNA, a critical step in initiating the RNAi pathway.
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What sets us apart from other primates?
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The genes of humans and other primates are very similar. And yet, it is evident that there are many differences among these primates. What underlies these differences, if not genes entirely? Can the non-coding regions of genes answer the question? Somdatta Karak writes for IndiaBioscience on the leads that Umapathy and other scientists across the world have found.
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New tools and people for drug discovery
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Problems like antimicrobial resistance require us to up our game in finding new antimicrobial drugs. And the new tools are making the process of drug discovery faster and easier. But we need people of different expertise to work together on a shared vision for an extended period of time. Somdatta Karak writes in The Hindu drawing on recent work from Manjula Reddy and Puran Singh Sijwali's labs.
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Focus on mass scale disease surveillance diagnostics
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There are now enough studies to validate that molecular biology tools can develop early warning systems for infectious diseases. The focus now needs to shift on developing affordable diagnostic kits for mass-scale usage.
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Can apomixis help in crop improvement sustainably?
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Listen to Venkatesan Sundaresan discuss how apomixis works and how are the apomictic rice varieties faring.
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BFI-Biome collaborates with CCMB and AIC-CCMB
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Blockchain for Impact (BFI) under BFI-Biome network has signed an MoU with CCMB and AIC-CCMB to undertake and support research and innovation in biomedical science. This aims to accelerate research discoveries translating into real-world solutions.
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Yogita Kapoor for the MITACS Graduate Research Award. This will let her do part of her PhD work at VIDO-InterVac, Canada.
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Soumya Kundu for the first prize in oral presentation at HySci 2024, IIT Hyderabad.
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Pooja Gupta for the third prize in oral presentation at HySci 2024, held at IIT Hyderabad.
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Inside I is the outcome of a workshop by Ipsa Jain on making science storybooks for children. Now published on Pratham Books' Storyweaver, we hope the book will enthuse middle-schoolers to know what makes us.
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Futuristic Fridays: AI in Biology and Health
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Listen to 4 experts who use AI tools to work with big data in biology and health.
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Register here and participate in the four quizzes to stand your chance of getting selected for an intensive training program to learn some of the tools yourself in the coming months.
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World DNA Day - An occasion to engage with young people's questions
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"How are scientists creating a mammoth which is extinct?" "Is it possible to create a device that gets automatically activated when someone is in danger, by sensing their stress levels and sends a signal to a police station?" Such were the questions that 9-10th graders from the People's Progress Trust asked us upon being introduced to DNA.
Belonging to low income families, most of them are already seriously thinking about their careers. And upon meeting a scientist cum science communicator in Annapoorna PK, they found inspirations that they hadn't otherwise thought about.
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If you have enjoyed reading the CCMB Daak, do subscribe and share it with your friends and colleagues!
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Please send us your feedback at socialmedia[at]csirccmb[dot]org. Looking forward to them.
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