Five years ago, in October 2020, my institute appointed me to a full professorship. On this occasion, I select 10 representative research papers we published in the past 5 years. It's been an absolute privilege to work with my super-talented, industrious, and fearless students.

Congratulations to my PhD student, Snehasis Sarkar @Snehasis_99 @DBS_IISERM, on receiving the Wiley Best Oral Presentation Award at the Advancing Peptide and Protein Science conference held at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali @INSTMohali.

It was wonderful to speak at a conference held at our neighboring institute @INSTMohali. My students were in the audience, watching me in full swing, wearing the Condensate Tie (designed by them) featuring a super-resolution image of multiphase protein-RNA condensates (PNAS 2023)

Listened to two wonderful and eloquent talks by Samrat @SamratLabMohali and Mily @MilyBhLab at @INSTMohali. It was especially wonderful to see my own supervisor in action!

Born #OTD 1791, Michael Faraday, the English physicist and chemist who discovered electromagnetic induction. He showed that a changing magnetic field can generate an electric current, the principle behind electrical generators and transformers. He also established the laws of electrolysis, discovered benzene, and helped turn the electromagnetic field from a useful picture into a physical idea. Faraday had little formal schooling. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a bookbinder and read the science books that passed through the shop. At twenty-one he attended Humphry Davy’s lectures, took detailed notes, and presented them to Davy while asking for a job. There was no opening, but a fight between two Royal Institution staff members led to one being fired; Davy remembered Faraday and hired him as a chemical assistant.

Isn't it interesting that Chandigarh-Mohali, now in the foothills of the Himalayas, was near the coastline ~ 50 million years ago (Ma)? Insular India, an island, existed for ~ 50 Ma after rifting from Gondwana. See this beautifully described video for geological shifts/evolution.

I posted this last year and am reposting for the new students and followers.

The link between geological transformations and evolution is a fascinating premise. It's interesting to think about the formation of Gondwana and the Cambrian explosion, which drove metazoan radiation. Read a new study @ScienceAdvances on Greater Gondwana. science.org/doi/10.1126/scia…

In my first-year biology class, I inspired the students to think about the cosmic history & geological transformations in the context of the origin of life & evolution. Oxygenation events were pacemakers for evolution. Read "The timetable of evolution".👇 science.org/doi/10.1126/scia…

Do register for the SBCI annual meet at CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow from October 28-30, 2026! Has a great collection of speakers this year. Will be an excellent forum for students to showcase their research!!

📢 Last Date of Registrations Extended for the 95th SBC(I) Conference! Join us @CSIR_CDRI for the 95th Annual Meeting of the Society of Biological Chemists, to be held from 28–30 October 2026 Register now : cdri.res.in/sbci2026 Extended last date: 21 Sept 2026 @ravishni

#researcherspotlight Harshita Sawdekar @Harshita3110 from Prof Sonia Longhi @LonghiSonia and Prof Joseph Chamieh lab at Aix-Marseille Université, France talks about her work on "Sequence Context Shapes Viral Protein Aggregation and Fibril Structure" biopatrika.com/academia/rese…

A beautiful paper by Yuji Goto (Osaka Univ) & coworkers on shear stress-dependent amyloid formation from amyloidogenic light chain involved in cardiac amyloidosis. febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com… Also, see the video of peristaltic pump-triggered amyloid formation: piped.video/watch?v=MF98fy8-…

A little more detail on Priyanka Dogra's inspirational career trajectory is now posted on LinkedIn. @PriyankaDogra07 lnkd.in/p/dvFqDPpV

Today my former PhD student, Priyanka Dogra @PriyankaDogra07, visited us. We celebrated her Molecular Cell paper (reposted). Priyanka was a BS-MS student @IISERMohali (2009-14) & did her MS thesis & PhD with me (she spearheaded condensate research in our lab & graduated in 2020).

FUN FACT: Your brain can make new neurons—even as an adult. And exercise can help boost the process. Contrary to popular belief at the time, Salk scientist Rusty Gage discovered that neurogenesis—the birth of new neurons—can continue throughout life. Today, his research is helping us understand how exercise supports this process and strengthens connections in the brain. One clue is BDNF, a protein that increases during exercise and helps neurons form connections. Another is GPLD-1, a protein produced in the liver that travels through the bloodstream to the brain. As Gage puts it, this shows that “the brain is connected to the rest of the body, and the rest of the body affects the brain.” For Salk’s Year of Brain Health, we’re asking: How does exercise contribute to brain health, and what can the biology behind it teach us about healthier aging? Photo credit: Christopher Michel Read more in the latest issue of Inside Salk: inside.salk.edu/fall-2026/sa… #SalkInstitute #YearOfBrainHealth #BrainHealth #Exercise #Neurogenesis #Neuroscience #HealthyAging

Thank you so much @SamratLabMohali for your kind words and continued support. It was wonderful to be back in the lab and reconnect with you. I am truly grateful for everything I have learned from you and the lab. 😊

It was great to have my former PhD student, Lisha Arora @aroralisha20, visit our lab. She is currently a postdoc with Xavier Salvatella at IRB Barcelona @IRBBarcelona. All the best to Lisha for her postdoctoral work!

See this stunning chemiluminescence demo by my PhD advisor, Uday Maitra @maitrau, at an ACS-CRSI @ChemResSocIndia chemistry outreach event at Sophia College for Women, Mumbai. Hats off to his tireless efforts in popularizing chemistry among school kids. linkedin.com/feed/update/urn…