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Cholesterol and fate of drug targets of depression
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Previous reports have suggested that antidepressants work better with statins - drugs that deplete cholesterol in cells. Aditya Kumar and Amit Chattopadhyay show serotonin receptors, common drug targets of antidepressants, change their cellular paths in presence of statins in their latest publication in ACS Chemical Neuroscience. It will be now exciting to see if & how this change due to cholesterol depletion actually enables a better action of the antidepressants.
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Genetic basis of sexual development
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Development of a multicellular organism is a complex orchestra of cells signalling each other via chemical molecules. Where and how each of these players will come into the orchestra is hugely determined by the information stored in our genes. The last publication in Sexual Development from Thangaraj and his collaborators delve into genetic basis of regulation of sexual development. The paper suggests three forms of the gene NR5A1 found in cases of 46 X,Y Disorders of Sex Development (those with a XY profile normally found in males but with genitalia that isn't clearly male or female) among Indians.
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Enabling constant discussions with policymakers
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Ratan Watal, Member Secretary to Economic Advisory Council of PM and K Rajeswar Rao, Senior Advisor, Economic Advisory Council of PM visited CCMB, interacted with its scientists and leadership to understand the ethos as well as the focus of the institute. We believe continual dialogues between the scientific fraternity and the policymakers keeps both the communities aware of each others' needs as well as focus areas, and facilitate complementing each other.
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Sankar, for his selection on the Board of Reviewing Editor at eLife! Find his fundamental work in understanding structure and function of proteins here.
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Mandar, for the 2019 NMRS Prof S Subramanian's 60th Birthday Award. His group studies structure and mechanisms of gene silencing machinery in cells using NMR techniques.
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Sreetama, for the American Chemical Society Poster prize at the International Symposium on Cell Surface Macromolecules help at IISER, Pune. She works with Amitabha Chattopadhyay on understanding the role of membrane lipids in tuning structure and function of membrane proteins.
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Interested in catching up with the science we discuss at CCMB?
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If you were not at the IUSSTF meeting at CCMB in Jan 2020, worry not! Find the line of talks here on our YouTube channel. The talks are still being curated and uploaded. So, subscribe to the channel, and keep your eyes on these and other talks that happen at CCMB.
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CCMB's mandate, written more than 40 years ago holds just as relevant to the world today. And that is the kind of vision we celebrate each year on the birth anniversary of PM Bhargava on Feb 22 as the Founder's Day. It is a day when we make no distinction between past, present and future - our students discuss the science of future, we listen to the journeys of CCMB alumni, and deliberate on pressing current topics of the world.
This year's Founder's Day welcomed CCMB alumni - Gayatri Saberwal and Thomas Pucadyil. We discussed multiple aspects of genetic modifications in agriculture, and let us be immersed in futuristic and fundamental science covering AI, game theory in evolution, oxygen sensing in cells among others.
We also launched the web portal for CCMB Network for any present and past member who has spent a minimum of 1 year in the institute. Register, and support fellow CCMB-ites.
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We partnered with KV Rao Scientific Society in Hyderabad on their SPARK Innovation Awards on Climate Change Challenge. As a part of the challenge we reached out to high school students in South India, and challenged them to design solutions for the problems arising out of climate change. The idea was to involve young students in local problems as change leaders.
From 50+ entries that we got, the top 10 were invited to present their ideas in Hyderabad. They spent a day with our ecologists at LaCONES-CCMB to understand how climate change is impacting ecosystems worldwide. They also discussed how we all have a role to play in fighting climate change.
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Science is logical thinking and asking good questions mostly. The techniques used are means to answer the questions. However, students often consider techniques to be the foundation of science. We conducted a workshop with BSc and MSc students to deliberate on scientific methodology - pushing them to design hypotheses and testable experiments.
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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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