Shilpa Pothapragada
@shilpap_
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2023 @SchmidtFellows | @wyssinstitute | PhD from @TIFRH_buzz | Women’s Health | Organ-on-chip | Mechanobiology |
Boston, MA
Joined December 2017
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Pinned Tweet
Absolutely stoked to finally share that I have been selected as a 2023 Schmidt Science Fellow!
Excited to be one of 32 Fellows selected this year and honoured to become a part of the fantastic community of
@SchmidtFellows
doing ground-breaking interdisciplinary science.
We are thrilled to announce the 2023 cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows -
@SchmidtFutures
@rhodes_trust
- 32 new Fellows will harness interdisciplinary science to make a positive impact on the world.
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Excited to announce that a majority of my PhD work has now gotten published in
@NatureComms
! 🥳
"Matrix mechanics regulates epithelial defence against cancer by tuning dynamic localization of filamin"
An explainer below:
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Super elated to share this news, albeit a little late (thanks, but no thanks COVID19 😒) :
Our work gets featured in the recent Editors' Highlights on Cancer
@NatureComms
!! 🥳
Find the work here -
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Breaking my twitter hibernation to announce that I finally defended my PhD this month and am officially, Dr. Shilpa Pothapragada!
Immensely grateful to the strong support system I had of family, friends, fellow lab members and most importantly, my advisor
@tamal_das
#PhDone
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As I prepare to leave for Boston this week, to start as a
@SchmidtFellows
at the
@wyssinstitute
, had a bunch of folks around ask me “what is it that you do?”.
Fortunately,
@AbhirathB
made this lovely explainer that serves as my elevator pitch!👇🏼 Points for brevity!
[Reposting because the previous upload didn't have audio]
I made a quick explainer about
@shilpap_
's research. Watch and wish her luck as she heads to Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical School to solve big problems in Female Reproductive Health
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Here at the Rhodes House for our very first
@SchmidtFellows
Science Leadership Programme; the excitement is unparalleled!
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Poster flash talk @ EMBO Workshop: Physics of Cells 2022, Ein Gedi.
If you are around in
#Physcell2022
catch me at poster
#27
tonight!
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Had the pleasure of interacting with students at the School of Life Sciences,
@HydUniv
. Talked about my (very enriching) PhD experience and what it takes to be a Schmidt Science Fellow.
Thank you to
@UohBiochemistry
for giving me a
#returntoyourroots
day!
Dr. Phani Shilpa Pothapragada visited the Department of Biochemistry and the School of Life Sciences on 26th June and interacted with students to share her journey towards achieving the fellowship.
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Heads up
#cellbio2020
attendees!
Did you ever wonder how cellular mechanics affect the inherent epithelial defence against cancer?
What happens when an atypical cell sprouts up within a normal epithelial system?
A short tweetorial...
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We found that stiffer ECM ==> inefficient removal of precancerous cells. 🤯 [right]
EDAC occurred efficiently on soft ECM, mutant cells removed. [left]
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On stiff ECM, filamin displayed a remarkable perinuclear localization. There wasn't enough filamin available at the interface for effective EDAC.
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Going further down the rabbit hole, we emerged with an explanation for the differential localization of filamin based on ECM stiffness. 🙌
Filamin-Cdc42 interaction vs Filamin-perinuclear cytoskeleton interaction was the key takeaway.
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This is THE essay for me!
I've been trying to do some science writing beyond my ongoing thesis-writing and this article just showed me how to ace it! A must read to understand "how to deprogram the jargon and write in a more accessible way".
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Inhibiting filamin-Cdc42 interaction within cells would lead to loss of EDAC on soft ECM. ❌❌
Preventing interaction of filamin with perinuclear cytoskeleton, led to ⬆️ increased mutant cell removal on stiff ECM! 🔥
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Had a great experience presenting my work at the Cell Dynamics Symposium, organized by
@VanderbiltCDB
.
Special thanks to session moderators
@montell_denise
, Andrea Page-McCaw and Chris Wright for a lively discussion and the wonderful words of encouragement.
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Pathological conditions like fibrosis, obesity and ageing can induce tissue stiffening and correlate with high cancer risk.
Our work gives new avenues for development of therapeutics against cancer prevention. 💊
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Fellow labmate
@PurnatiK
's work gets published in PNAS! Collective Cellular Dynamics lab is on a roll! 👏
@tamal_das
Head over to the explainer below for a summary of the interesting new discovery, "migration-induced golgi remodelling (MIGAR)".
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Next, we wondered what was causing this differential outcome. 🤨
We found an actin-binding protein, Filamin, to be at the centre of this phenomenon.
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Celebrations continued over the entire month; the happy faces say it all! 😁
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Normal epithelial cells exhibit a unique skill to recognize any randomly arising mutated cell in their surroundings and kick them out as a defence strategy.
This process is called "Epithelial Defence Against Cancer" (EDAC) and its failure may end up promoting tumour development.
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Major thanks to the best PhD guide one could ask for,
@tamal_das
, whose unwavering faith in my capabilities has been the driving factor for this work!
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How do these normal cells recognize a mutant/pre-cancerous cell and push them out? This question fuelled considerable work to demonstrate key molecular players, that happened to be "force-bearing" cytoskeletal proteins. 💪
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Force and mechanics, you say?
Could EDAC be mechanically influenced then? 🤔
We directed our attention to such an important mechanical factor, the extracellular matrix (ECM), and decided to look at how the mechanics of ECM influenced the outcome of EDAC.
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In this work, we used epithelial cells cultured in vitro on gel-like substrates that could be tuned to different stiffness, to mimic either a physiologically soft ECM or fibrotic, stiff ECM.
The normal and precancerous (transformed) cells were mixed and grown on different ECMs
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Thanks for this excellent find
@AbhirathB
'Science Startups - Who's Hiring?'
A lot of scientists have a hard time finding cool startup opportunities. Trying an experiment to help.
Science startups -- reply with 1 tweet on your mission, roles looking for, and how to learn more.
Everyone -- RT so more scientists see!
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Stiffness of ECM is known to affect tumour metastasis, which happens to be late stage.
However, nothing is known about the effect of the tumour microenvironment at the very initial stage of its prevention, i.e. EDAC.
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Can vouch for the supreme thrill of figuring things out with a new PI. Establishing new experimental protocols,tweaking around old ones or transitioning from a lost soul(every grad student) to one who sees some sense in her data!
🥂to
@tamal_das
for being an awe-inspiring mentor!
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On soft ECM, filamin localizes at the cell-cell interface and is important for normal cells to push out the transformed cells.
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My gynae when I tell her that I'm doing a PhD in biology: "I was also very good in biology and zoology. In fact I was the topper in school."
Weird flex but okay, Doc! 😅
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Lockdown thoughts:
Harry Potter singing to himself in Half-blood-prince "Ginny mera dil luteya"
Help! 🙈
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You are not officially a biologist if you haven't spent weeks trying to get a successful western blot. 😂
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To the best teacher I could have asked for! 🙌
TIFR Founder's Day awards: Congratulations to Tamal Das (faculty
@TIFRH_buzz
) on receiving the 'TAA BM Udgaonkar: Excellence in Teaching Award in Biology (2021)'.
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Applying for jobs in life sciences industry in UK/Europe/US and been hit with the first rejection already, without an interview even. For a role that seemed I was very well suited for, right down to the specific technical skills.
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Major thanks to
@tamal_das
and
@TIFRH_buzz
for the nomination and everyone who supported me along the way.
@SchmidtFutures
@rhodes_trust
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Hey
@vijaypande
, I want to finish my PhD in MechanoBiology and join industry to help Bio Eat World. How do I get in touch with the best people to collaborate with?
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Guilty as charged 🤭
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Overwhelmed with the response to this work and grateful for all the appreciation!
I really want to respond to everyone, however I'm down with moderate COVID right now.
Will respond ASAP. 😊
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Such a refreshing change from traditional (powerpoint-based) conference presentations!
I'm so inspired to make an attempt at communicating my work similarly. 😁
The
#CytoMorphoLab
is happy to present:
Microtubule Mechano-Sensations,
recorded for
#cellbio2020
Feel free to comment the science or the movie and to share it with cell biology and cytoskeleton afficionados.
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All models are wrong, but some are useful.
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Gave up hopes of travel when the embassy opened up applications but for dates much later than mine.
Saved by the conference organizers who arranged for visa ok an exception basis. Plans changed within 6 hours!
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Getting information from the mishmash of Indian media can be so exhausting and misleading.
New variants of the virus will keep popping up, but we need a lot more sequencing studies done before attributing the current wave to any one variant.
This thread below tells us why:
A few thoughts on the B.1.617 variant, first seen in India in late 2020, recently seen in >100 cases in the UK, and very much in the news here. TLDR: we should watch carefully, but I don't think any of our best lines of evidence on variants are yet cause for concern. 🧵
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@TheWireScience
reports on our findings published in
@NatureComms
on how the epithelial cells' ability to defend cancer genesis is affected by ECM stiffness.
Thank you
@queersprings
A common metaphor for cancer is that of a battle: cancerous cells arising due to genetic mutations rapidly defeat normal cells, leading to the spread of cancer. |
@queersprings
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Really wish that the lockdown doesn't get extended with the same restrictions.
There should be some provisions for availing non-life-threatening medical services.
Not to make light of the scenario, but two-timing physiotherapists has gotten exhausting. 😒
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Discovering ASMR for sleep is transporting me into a whole new dimension.
Insomnia, eat shit now!
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Science for the win!
Congratulations to the team for achieving this true lab-on-a-chip feat!
Delighted to announce the publication of our work on *Microfluidic Chain Reaction* (MCR) in
@Nature
.
MCR help realize a true lab-on-a-chip and could perform medical tests. You may download, modify, and 3D print your own MCR chip 😎
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Quite a crisp explainer on immunity, especially if one's looking to share with folks from non-science background.
'Cause you see, immune system is complicated...
The origin of this story is one of my colleagues asked for an immunity explainer, and I said, "GOD NO, have you any idea how complicated immunology is, that would kill me," but then I realized that I am already dead inside, and wrote the piece.
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Childhood is getting mad at mom for making plain-boring lauki ki sabzi.
Adulthood is willfully making and consuming (and relishing?) lauki ji sabzi 'coz you messed up your stomach having a stale panini sub.
🤦🏻♀️
childhood is your parents getting mad at you for not taking your health seriously
adulthood is you getting mad at your parents for not taking their health seriously
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I find myself looking for good science substacks and newsletters that are insightful and inspire me to read+write more.
@NikoMcCarty
and
@ElliotHershberg
are my top suggestions, for anyone interested.
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Check my ePoster (P178) for more details and join me in the discussion session tomorrow, December 14 from 12:00-12:45 p.m EST.
@ASCBiology
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A very fun tweet thread that condenses the salient points from the paper efficiently. Amazing work as well! Congratulations to the team!
How does the intestine twist without getting all tied up?? The embryo uses an ACCELERATOR-BRAKE to tune gut rotation - we report
@Science
today!
#devbio
#guthealth
@KurpiosLab
@Cornell
Read the🧵to understand the comic reference!
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This is what
@AbhirathB
also keeps telling me, to tweet my thoughts and ideas more regularly.
And I keep wondering, where do I start...
Want to seriously improve your academic writing? 🙋♂️
Start tweeting
I'm not kidding
Here's 4 reasons why tweeting everyday will make your writing 🔥🔥🔥
@AcademicChatter
@PhD_Genie
@thephdstory
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Just the other day,
@AbhirathB
and I were discussing how AI writing tools can only be outcompeted by writers who can bring in original perspectives and display deep knowledge of the subject.
Such an ‘aha’ moment to see it being echoed by this essay here.
The Fall and Rise of Science Writing 📈
In the not-so-distant future, those with intense mastery over a subject will be the greatest writers.
Scientists: Now is the time to start a blog.
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When your work gets tweeted about! 😃😁
Cell competition involves mechanical interaction: depends on tissue stiffness and compression of individual cells. Tamal Das
@tamal_das
@TIFRH_buzz
@India_Alliance
#M2T2_2019
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If you ever wondered where are the dumb people of the world, trust them to come out in huge numbers protesting against the lockdown with "real problems" they are facing!
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A fascinating read.
However, there was something about the story that left me disconcerted and I was struggling to put it into words.
@NeedhiBhalla
gets it right.
"Getting Franklin’s story right is crucial, because she has become a role model for women going into science. She was up against not just the routine sexism of the day, but also more subtle forms embedded in science — some of which are still present today"
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Can attest to this being absolutely normal (for us).
Here's a picture I took while standing there and noting down the values in a notebook. At the same time! 😅
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"Old men's club" and a dearth of female scientists especially in fields like the physical sciences and earth sciences really hits home hard!
Coupled to that is this misplaced complacency that there exists no reason for questioning gender bias in academia. 🙄
Over the years, I interacted with numerous Indian scientists. Every woman in science has faced some form of sexism.. I write about some of their experiences.
#InternationalWomensDay202
#ThePrintScience
#PoV
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@AthaleLab
@z_chiang
Interesting! That must really help in distilling the thoughts behind one's work.
I have found
@AwsarDST
to be one good platform that should be given a shot by the research graduates in India.
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@tamal_das
Thank you, Tamal! I’ll always be grateful for your mentorship.
Working with you has been inspiring; leading my scientific journey onto an exciting path!
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Ooh yes! 😂
Getting back to lab after a four day conference and telling everyone how it went
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Reviewer
#1
: your grammar sucks and you should feel bad.
Reviewer
#2
: very well-written manuscript.
WUT
#PostDocProblems
#AcademicChatter
@OpenAcademics
#AcademicTwitter
#phdchat
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Such great scientific conclusion, give them an award already 🤦🤦🤦
Gujarat government claims ‘ayurvedic kadha’ helped quarantined persons test negative for Covid-19
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What's a word for the lone person in the lab, all pumped up to work at 7 a.m on a Monday morning?
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Wholeheartedly agree with Prof. Menon. Good mentorship and a supportive PI are decisive factors shaping a graduate student's capability during the PhD tenure. Abundant anecdotal evidences exist in Indian academia.
@ArindamPhysics
I actually don't agree with this, Arindam. I think, especially In the Indian context, a supervisor is the most important figure in a graduate students life. A lack of early mentorship can make a huge difference. A good student can recover, but at a great cost.
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@piyushdaga4892
@AishMands
@AishMands
is this yet again another insider detail that Daga has revealed in public?
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When my physiotherapist says "you seem to be doing good now, see you after 3 weeks." The only challenge I'm on board with right now.
#3weekchallenge
😅
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@AbhirathB
is building
#TOR
, a community designed to connect folks looking for career guidance with "mentors" across a variety of disciplines.
If you are looking for guidance, a referral or just a conversation with someone in your relevant field, sign up in the link below!
Announcement
I’m building a community called TOR to enable anyone who is looking for guidance to figure out next steps in their career and want to connect with folks who can give them perspective.
If you :
1. Aren’t sure how to pursue a particular career path or hunt jobs
2.
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@piyushdaga4892
@AishMands
Her next lockdown woe count is going to be A€®πh✓}¶∆•%
Cause why bother with numbers at this point!
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Use a word repeatedly and it becomes part of the language 💁🏻♀️
@AbhirathB
‘Irregardless’ is now officially a word as per Merriam-Webster—and that’s regardless of the fact that the extra ‘ir’ serves no damn purpose whatsoever. The dictionary’s defence: "We do not make the English language, we merely record it." Boo!
Read more:
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So the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers are uniting in India.
Ever wonder if stupidity will cease to amaze?
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However, on stiffened (fibrotic) ECM, filamin gets increasingly accumulated around the nucleus.
Reduced filamin at the cell junctions == loss of epithelial defence
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@piyushdaga4892
@AishMands
Really,
#rodentlove
?!
Next time one visits our house, you will be ok duty to clean its carcass 😛
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This is plain cruel!
The uncertainty of paper-acceptance after a long review process is definitely one of the most draining aspects of the publishing brouhaha.
knowing that a friend's paper was rejected after 3 years under review at
@Nature
is just devastating. Asking for animal data that takes years and just claim "the hypothesis is not novel anymore" is low. It's irresponsible to research money spent. Reviewers also need to do better.
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@piyushdaga4892
I'll take solace in the fact that I'm doing interdisciplinary research and not 'pure' biology. 😛
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The Cleaner in me feels attacked!
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Great thread on tips-and-tricks for manuscript writing. Concise and resourceful.
#sciencetwitter
Are you a student or early career faculty worried about a low publication record? This thread contains my advice for increasing your writing efficiency. I invite anyone to add to it to make it a useful crowd-sourced resource for anyone just starting out! Here goes! 1/x
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@anuragxel
@AbhirathB
Thank you so much! 😁
@AbhirathB
is downplaying his contribution towards keeping my sanity all along! ☺️
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