Ashish Arora

Structural Biologist

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

@Dimpy_IISERB @NatureComms @iiserbhopal @chm_iiserb @serbonline @IndiaDST Congratulations 💐 We would like it to try it on our single cysteine labeled proteins.

[ISRO InSight @ISROSight]

𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚, 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐢𝐭. 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧!

Aditya-L1 has successfully entered the Halo orbit around the L1 point.

#ISRO #AdityaL1Mission #AdityaL1

[Dr Jitendra Singh @DrJitendraSingh]

Arrived at #Lucknow this afternoon, to a warm welcome at Choudhary Charan Singh Airport. Looking forward to be part of a series of events lined up for the day.

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

@NilanjanaMajum4 @JOC_OL @serbonline @CSIR_CDRI Congratulations 💐

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

@buddhadeb1979 @serbonline @CSIR_IND Congratulations 💐

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

@mssrf @doctorsoumya @MadhuraFAS @nityarao63 @cabcmssrf @bptabc_mssrf @HariharanGN @Rengalakshmi10 @DrOliverking @nagarajangis @sangyraj @gopidina @Gayatrivenkata2 @jacinthnithya Heartfelt condolences 🙏 His contributions to India's Green Revolution will be remembered with gratitude and respect 🙏

[Veera Rajagopal  @doctorveera]

A mind-blowing paper has come out today in @Nature

In 2016, JC Venter Institute scientists trimmed a bacterial genome to its barest minimum required for life to synthesize what they called a "minimal genome" (https://t.co/Rk8oZJ0bUj).

Today, a group of scientists from Indiana University reports how that minimal genome evolved over 2000 generations in comparison to the non-minimal genome.

The authors found that even when you reduce a bacterial genome to its absolute minimum where every nucleotide matters, the genome undergoes mutational events generation after generation as much as the non-minimal genome. One simply cannot stop the evolution.

Just over 300 days of evolution (equivalent to 40,000 years in humans) the minimal cell has gained everything it lacked in fitness on day one in comparison to the non-minimal cell.

When comparing the evolved traits between the minimal and non-minimal cells, the scientists found something striking. The evolutionary process increased the cell size of non-minimal cells but not that of the minimal cell. But that is not the striking part.

The scientists were able to identify the key mutation that resulted in cell size evolution. And it turned out that the mutation that helped the non-minimal cells to grow bigger is the same that helped the minimal cells to stay smaller. Growing bigger had a survival advantage for non-minimal cells and not growing bigger had a survival advantage for minimal cells. So, the mutation had a context-dependent effect. This just demonstrates that the evolutionary effects on traits have no absolute direction. All that matter is what is beneficial for the organism's survival.

The conclusion of the paper is metaphorically a quote from the Jurassic Park movie:

“Listen, if there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but . . . life finds a way". (https://t.co/UlxRlb86CT)

https://t.co/zA9OAqSoAu

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

@shekhar_mande Great animation 👌

[Dr Philipp Ackermann @AmbAckermann]

"I had the best time of my life when I was in Germany with the Humboldt fellowship" - great exchange with @AvHStiftung Alumni in Lucknow, also learnt a few things about astronomy🔭, cardiology🫀 and biochemistry🧬.

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

The virus is talking. We're not listening
https://t.co/k6ymRyUE6f

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

Do protons have intrinsic charm? New evidence suggests yes https://t.co/xp2PQtxJrQ

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

Potential fabrication in research images threatens key theory of Alzheimer’s disease https://t.co/LmcEfgOAxs

[Ed Yong is not here @edyong209]

🚨I wrote about BA.5—the latest coronavirus variant to rise to dominance—and why it matters.

This is an attempt to clearly lay out what we know about it, and to cut through the morass of misinformation that has already accumulated around it. 1/

https://t.co/j1sbQh2QaM

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

Building the nuclear pore complex https://t.co/X6kXEQWhLC

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

Reaction hijacking of tyrosine tRNA synthetase as a new whole-of-life-cycle antimalarial strategy https://t.co/Qe1jGL5k24

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

@ehmke_pohl @FillingV Thanks for sharing.

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

https://t.co/Zc67pxvf8v

[DD News @DDNewslive]

CSIR-CDRI Scientists Developed Indigenous RT-PCR kit “Om” for #Omicron Variant.
#COVID19
@CSIR_IND
@CSIR_CDRI
@tapasjournalist
Read more: https://t.co/V3lOwSkXZf

[DD News @DDNewslive]

CSIR-CDRI Scientists Developed Indigenous RT-PCR kit “Om” for #Omicron Variant.
#COVID19
@CSIR_IND
@CSIR_CDRI
@tapasjournalist
Read more: https://t.co/V3lOwSkXZf

[Ashish Arora @AshishAroraCDRI]

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant: Antibody evasion and cryo-EM structure of spike protein–ACE2 complex https://t.co/qF1x2qBQAP