In the first-ever study from India, researchers at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru and the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, have analysed how prevalent the Merkel Cell Polyomavirus (MCV) is in India.
Chemogenetics is a technique that uses chemicals to understand how neurons are activated. It manipulates genes to place the neurons under the control of special receptors called DREADDS. Short for Designer Receptors Activated by Designer Drugs, these receptors only bind to an inert chemical called Clozapine-N-Oxide (CNO). In a recent study, researchers from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, and Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, point out specific flaws in this technique.
We all know that the geometric object of minimal surface area amongst all shapes with a fixed volume is the round ball, whose boundary is spherical. Water blobs try to minimise surface area and curl into spherical droplets. The physical problem of surface-area minimisation is thus quite well understood. What about the opposite problem of surface-area maximisation? Does the problem even make sense? Indeed it does. Trees try to maximise surface area to get the most of sunlight through their leaves.
In the last one hundred and sixty years, in spite of hundreds of claims, some of them from first-class mathematicians, the Riemann Hypothesis, or the holy grail of mathematics, remains as elusive as ever. The conjecture, which originated from the work of Bernhard Riemann on the distribution of prime numbers, has now been extended and generalised into a monstrous beast. Its cunning and long arms now encompass almost all areas of mathematics, far beyond its site of origin.
Researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai have discovered that tiny RNAs, called microRNAs, help our cells to maintain an equilibrium of energy production during states of upheaval—fasting and feasting.
Tiny RNA lost during domestication created robust rice varieties, shows study by NCBS, Bengaluru.
In a recent announcement made by the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, 23 scientists from across the country have been elected as Fellows of the Academy. The list contains nine scientists from Bengaluru, with five from the Indian Institute of Science, two from TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics and one each from National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS) and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR).
Researchers from the National Centre for Cell Science, Pune and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), Bhubaneswar, have identified a novel noncoding RNA that causes cancer in mice.
Researchers from NCBI, RRI, University of Barcelona, CSIR - Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, CNCI, and University of Queensland tried to understand how cells maintain their shapes in spite of expelling material from their membrane.
The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) has announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2018 today, 13 November 2018. Among the winners who are in Indian institutes are two Professors from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and one each from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
