Sandhya Koushika
Cellular neurobiologist TIFR India who loves genetics, live imaging and worms. Science is fun, let's go exploring.
Sci comm, write bad poetry, 2 girl mom
lab: tinyurl.com/5n7s6ens
scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=c4zD…
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaExcited to see this out in the world. The CGC is launching a curated strains collection, the first being protein degradation systems and this is a pilot primer to pair with it authored by myself, Dave Reiner, Ann Rougvie, and Aric Daul. We review the state of the field and provide use guidance (1)
- Tomorrow The Hindu will host a webinar titled, 'How we can bring our scientists back home', on January 31, 5:00 p.m. Registration FREE: ask ques & interact with panelists. 3 best questions will receive a free online subscription to @thehindu.com Register: www.thehindu.com/events-regis...
- Cool study & thread from @krishnanyamuna.bsky.social . pH maps inside organelles- take home its NOT uniform
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaApplications open for the mid-term PhD program in Biology at TIFR, Mumbai! 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀: Cell Biology, Developmental Neuroscience & Neurogenetics 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: Department of Biological Sciences (tifr.res.in/dbs/) 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: JRF or GATE 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆: tinyurl.com/5xtm27f9 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Jan 22, 2026 #PhDinIndia
- Fun hear.
- Important consideration when doing imaging
- Diving into the literature… I think it's the first time I see correlative live-cell/EM data after photobleaching - it shows how intense light can actually destroy microtubules rather than just bleach fluorescent tubulin along a neurite (from onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...)
- Wonderful initiative linking @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social to @qedscience.bsky.social. 👍🏽👏🏽 @odedrechavi.bsky.social & @richardsever.bsky.social
- Cool study
- An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaThe FPbase spectra viewer just had it's biggest software refactor in 6 years. It *should* be largely invisible to the end user (hopefully just faster and less buggy). Please let me know if you find any issues as you use it! www.fpbase.org/spectra/
- super interesting-dig in
- 🧵 I've been meaning to write a #Skytorial on our recently posted prepring in which we show evidence that the Golgi 🥞 is a mechanoresponsive organelle. Extracellular mechanical forces also tune Golgi export capacity! 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaField notes from a weekend PI at the #microscope: vesicle cargo lanes lighting up in real time like @FedEx. This is the ML1N PX domain in a fibroblast. Hot damn, there’s mind-blowing action under the surface of cells: this video shows 2 min of time 🤯 #Cellbio #MicroscopyMonday #SciArt #SciComm
- Spatial memory & motion are expressed simultaneously during behaviours. Synchronization of hippocampal dynamics (HD) occurs during movement. Disrupting HD during locomotion impairs memory. ⭐ work @rhythmicspikes.bsky.social @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social in #IAN25 Read more: tinyurl.com/4dah3xw6
- Reposted by Sandhya Koushika🚀 #ALBADiversityWeek 2025 starts today! We celebrate diversity & intersectionality by highlighting key activities and sharing valuable resources. 👀 Stay tuned all week as we revisit achievements and launch new initiatives. Share our posts to join the #GlobalDiversityAwarenessMonth celebration. 🧵
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaWhen its meal turns toxic, the tiny worm #CElegans shuts down digestion thanks to a single protein that links its “taste” neurons to the gut.
- Super interesting-dig in Pre- and postantibiotic epoch: The historical spread of antimicrobial resistance | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- A 19-page article in the National Geographic that covers the work of @uramakri.bsky.social @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social @tifr.res.in on black tigers, mutation load and corridors for tiger migration. Important story and impactful work. 👏🏾 www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
- This award aims to highlight outstanding research by active neuroscientists working in countries underrepresented in neuroscience publications and conferences. @network-alba.bsky.social @sfn.org @ibroorg.bsky.social @fens.org
- Our worm lab is recovering from a mite attack. Trainees devoted hours to cleanup A mite or two or an army They are hateful and smarmy Our helpless little ones Crushed by their whirling carny Hello give up not Gather all the stock Pick, bleach, clean Burn to death a game well fought
- Reposted by Sandhya Koushika🚨Only 4 days to apply!!!🚨Join the SDB SciComm Internship! Gain hands-on experience writing stories on the latest developmental biology discoveries🔬Connect with top mentors & earn $500 to attend the SDB Annual Meeting 🎉! 👉 www.sdbonline.org/science_comm... #SciComm #DevBio
- 😮 Just WOW!! Spray GFP mRNAs on plant leaves and the leaves translate this and you get glowing leaves. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Really interesting preprint on how the nervous-system modulates heat-dependent fertility. Work from @ethanewe.bsky.social from @odedrechavi.bsky.social lab. May well be relevant in a planet that is heating up.
- Neuronal oversight of germline small RNAs prevents heat-induced sterility in lab-domesticated Caenorhabditis elegans biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Read today "Comparison is the thief of Joy" True that
- Our dept @tifr.res.in ran an MSc by research for ~25yrs. Our last batch graduated this month. Several headed to excellent PhD programs, some to jobs. Congratulations and good luck for many fun adventures. 👏🏾Sohan Seal from my lab headed for a PhD to @mpi-cbg.de. 2nd from L, row 2
- 😔 Doing science has taken on elements of a corporation w/ writing=one "vertical". Output of research as patents and IP seems to be another. Metrics is a temple at which we worship at. Sometimes overlooked is serendipity, small groups that meander & in this context the idea that writing is thinking.
- Important.......
- "Our observations should prompt an essential re-evaluation of the literature concerning astrocyte-neuron mitochondrial transfer" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- ⭐ 🌟 image
- Our July issue is here! rupress.org/jcb/issue/22... The cover shows a confocal timelapse imaging of #Celegans one-cell embryo expressing fluorescently labeled plasma membrane, microtubules, chromosomes, and ZEN-4, a plus-end directed kinesin motor protein. By Adhikary et al. doi.org/10.1083/jcb....
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaNew organ clock data support the anti-aging benefits of estrogen for postmenopausal women. Reviewed here in context with previous and other recent reports. erictopol.substack.com/p/new-anti-a...
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaBummed I missed the worm meeting this year but happy Worm Show was posted on YouTube. Bravo Morris and Curtis! www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXgU...
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaWe are looking forward to the Worm Meeting 2027 and thank Suhong Xu(Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China), Kavita Babu (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India), and Erik Andersen (Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, USA) for organising. #worm25
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaAs it’s my first time joining Worm Meeting, I was excited to participate in Worm Art show as well. This year’s topic is resilience. In times of scarcity, worms gather holding one another to reach new grounds. Alone - they are fragile, together - they rise. Even the sky yields in unity. #worm25
- Role of clathrin adaptor complex AP3 in secretion of dense core vesicles from the Sahu lab, NBRC. Badal from my lab has added an experiment testing the role of AP3 in secretion of neuropeptides in C. elegans.
- AP-3 complex sorts preferential cargo to govern dense core vesicle function in neuroendocrine cells biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- ❤️
- How can one not love the “Worm Community” !!! 🪱🪱👨🔬👩🔬🧑🔬👌🏼👌🏼 🫶🏼🫶🏼 #Worm25
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaFavorite moment of the day: "Do Genetics" -Nobel Prize Winner Gary Ruvkun #worm25
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaPaul Sternberg with important WormBase news #worm25
- Reposted by Sandhya Koushika“Do you have any advice for aspiring young scientists?” “Do genetics.” *mic drop* #worm25
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaFor #worm25, here are updated lists of 200+ researchers for the #Celegans community to easily follow: C. elegans #1 (150 full) - go.bsky.app/HP1h3nW C. elegans #2 (50+) - go.bsky.app/J7soTHG ==> Reply to this if you'd like to be added! cc: @genetics-gsa.bsky.social #CeleganSky 🪱 🧪 1/nat://did:plc:6ru4qlucwxaltgakvtliznng/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3l23ovbrvgw2t
- 👌🏽
- Nobel winners of worms! Curiosity driven science is essential! @genetics-gsa.bsky.social
- Nice study
- This is cool. CryoEM showing COPI coat containing GOLPH3, together with functional data suggests the mechanism for cargo retention/transport. The mechanistic basis of cargo selection during Golgi maturation Taylor, Zubkov, Ciazynska et al. doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Looking forward to working with @network-alba.bsky.social
- Congratulations to our newly elected Board members: 🎉 Sandhya Koushika, Jatin Nagpal, and Ibukun Akinrinade 🎉 Chair-Elect: Bita Moghaddam Thank you to everyone who joined the ALBA General Assembly 2025! 💙 We’re grateful for your energy and insights. @fens.org
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaPleased to share our latest work by Shivani and Subodh. We show that the essential amino acid Trp is highly toxic to C. elegans. It turns out that the bacterial diet is the culprit. Bacterial metabolism of Trp to indole causes the toxicity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaNDR kinase SAX-1 controls dendrite branch-specific elimination during neuronal remodeling in C. elegans biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- This was a brilliant public talk @tifr.res.in by Nobel laureate Prof. Brian Schmidt. It was informative, simple to understand for people outside the field, funny & inspiring. You can watch a recording here. youtube.com/watch?v=awik...
- From the Big Bang to black holes and dark energy—discover the epic story of our Universe with Nobel laureate Prof. Brian Schmidt! 🗓 June 5, 2025 | 🕔 5 PM 📍 Homi Bhabha Auditorium, TIFR, Mumbai Free & open to all (Photo ID required) #TIFRScience #PublicLecture #ScienceForAll
- Based in Mumbai? Interested in general in science. Come to the lovely @tifr.res.in campus to listen to Paul Nurse. TODAY........
- What is life? Find out from Nobel laureate Paul Nurse as he explores 5 big ideas in biology! Join us for a public lecture at the Homi Bhabha Auditorium on May 30, 2025 (Friday). Open to all (photo ID required) #TIFRScience #PublicLecture #ScienceForAll #NobelLaureate
- Reposted by Sandhya Koushika'A hierarchy of PDZ domain scaffolding proteins clusters the Kv1 K+ channel protein complex at the axon initial segment' www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Sandhya Koushika[This post could not be retrieved]
- Looking forward to this fun meeting
- Learn about the #cytoskeleton: From #evolution to #biophysics and more at EMBO Workshop "Frontiers in Cytoskeleton Research" in Pune, India, 3–7 Nov Abstract submission deadline: 20 Jun Registration deadline: 15 Jul buff.ly/b7zAyw8 #EMBOcytoskeleton #StructuralBiology #CellBiology #EMBOevents 🧪
- Reposted by Sandhya Koushika".....but a key feature of this community became abundantly clear: Worm people tend to help one other. They readily share insights, lab processes, even worms themselves." So true. The worm community is the best.
- Delighted to share this timely article in Boston magazine on our local C. elegans community and the effects of NIH freezes. "There might be no group more enthusiastic, self-aware, or life-affirming than the worm people." www.bostonmagazine.com/news/c-elega...
- "I was starting to think that these worms have a way of bringing out the best in humans—generosity, cooperation, and an unbridled curiosity about life." TRUE THAT
- It was so much fun to discuss why we do basic science. "If we understand how biology works, then lots of useful applications will come out of it ... But honestly, that’s not the only thing that drives people. People are just curious, and they want to know how living systems work." #Celegans 🧪🧬🪱
- WOW!! Poems show a 65% ⬇️ in ranges of porpoise. “We used the occurrence sites in poems to map the historical distribution of the Yangtze finless porpoise. The number of grids with occurrences declined from 169 in the Tang Dynasty to just 59 in modern times.." www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Biodiversity research and likely conservation efforts likely benefits from the combination of art and science as presented in this study.
- Interesting study and lovely movies from @lllackner.bsky.social lab
- Jason Casler @jasoncasler.bsky.social, Clare Harper and Laura Lackner @lllackner.bsky.social find that mitochondria–plasma membrane contact sites regulate the ER–mitochondria encounter structure. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/... #JCSMitoSI #OpenAccess #ReadandPublish
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaLove worms, molecular genetics, and big questions? We’re hiring a postdoc to build a CRISPRa toolkit to identify new aging mechanisms in C. elegans. Email or DM me to find out more. Please share & repost!
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaAdhikary et al. show that LIN-5/GPR-1/2 complexes present at the polar and lateral regions of the cell membrane facilitate the accumulation of contractile ring components at furrow formation and stabilize them in the midbody, thus aiding in various #cytokinesis processes. rupress.org/jcb/article/...
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaFinally a role for the most common synaptic marker in the world synaptophysin - maintaining synaptic vesicle diameter: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- More functions for the LITE-1, a suggested UV light activated ion channel, making it a multimodal sensor
- The C. elegans gustatory receptor homolog LITE-1 is a chemoreceptor required for diacetyl avoidance biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Sandhya KoushikaSlices of wood can act as water filters that remove bacteria and microplastics. www.newscientist.com/article/2474...
- A fun study. Salt stress sensed by a pharyngeal neuron (acting much like a sensory neuron) using GLR-9 an ionotropic receptor. Dig in
- Reposted by Sandhya Koushika
For the cost of the commerical system that I bought in 2013 and I have no use for 99% of its features, you can make like 10 custom, purpose-built microscopes. LEDs are cheap, cameras are cheap, software is free. - Interesting....
- Being passively touched and actively touching something have different ethological meanings. @grohlex.bsky.social &co show that active & passive #touch are represented differently in the brain; the higher-order #thalamus differentiates active & passive touch @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/44pswmm
- Useful review. Anemia is an important public health issue for women's health in India
- Most viewed in the last 7 days from JAMA: Review focuses on the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of absolute iron deficiency with or without anemia. ja.ma/42irqpQ
