Pooja Shukla

Biologist in @SOlab_Tokyo
my current GPS location @UTokyo_RCAST

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

This one will surely go into the autobiography...❤️

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

A part of my PhD is airing on internet now. Do check it out. And stay tuned for more updates. Yay!

[bioRxiv Bioengineering @bioRxiv_bioE]

Microfluidic Core-Shell Encapsulation Enables Scalable Generation of Apical-Out Intestinal Spheroids

https://t.co/LzWufPwOJ1
#biorxiv_bioE

[Nick Desnoyer @NickDesnoyer]

Genes for genetic painting in flowers now available on Addgene!: https://t.co/gec7Kywuyd

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

Incredibly proud to share this innovative research where I had the pleasure to contribute. Happy reading!

[SadaoOtaLab (RCAST, UTokyo) @soLab_tokyo]

Excited to share our latest work https://t.co/232kx1Ukde
We developed Emulsion-Templated Gel Embedding (ETE), a microfluidics-free method for generating uniform cell-containing hydrogel microcapsules using simple vortex-based emulsification and standard laboratory equipment.

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

I legit checked on all sns and confirmed it was not AI. Damn! Team melodi is on fire😆

[Giorgia Meloni @GiorgiaMeloni]

Thank you for the gift

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

@RGCB_Trivandrum Many congratulations Mam!! 🌸 best wishes for this amazing feat.

[Bo Wang @BoWang87]

This is really cool (and wild):

Scientists simulated a complete living cell for the first time. Every molecule, every reaction, from DNA replication to cell division.

The paper (Luthey-Schulten et al., Cell 2026, https://t.co/PXxXWKC8yp), just out today, used JCVI-Syn3A — a synthetic minimal bacterium with fewer than 500 genes. A 3D+time simulation of the full 105-minute cell cycle: DNA replication, protein translation, metabolism, division. Every gene, protein, RNA, and chemical reaction tracked through physical space.

It took years to build. Multiple GPUs. Six days of compute time per run.

And this is the simplest possible cell.

A human cell has ~20,000 genes. It lives in tissue. It interacts with neighbors. It differentiates. It responds to drugs in ways that depend on context we haven't fully measured.

Mechanistic simulation of the minimal cell costs 6 GPU-days for 105 minutes of biology. You cannot scale that to human cells. The complexity isn't 40x harder. It's exponentially harder.

This is why the field pivoted to data-driven models. You can't hand-encode the regulatory wiring of a human hepatocyte. But you can learn it — if you have the right perturbation data collected across enough diverse biological contexts.

The two approaches aren't competing. Papers like this generate the ground truth that future ML models need for validation. But the path to a clinically useful virtual cell runs through foundation models, not through scaling up mechanistic simulation.

Amazing work!

[Aspireachieve @Aspireachievee]

Emotions That Only Exist In Japanese:

// Thread //

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

@AjayPremKaushal @rightwingchora @grok This is from a raagni (haryanvi folk music). Bam lehri by Bansi Jogi ji

[G V Pavan Kumar @Pavan_KumarGV]

Random thoughts..

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

Looking forward to exciting science and learning! Grateful to my lab @soLab_tokyo and Takeda Foundation for this opportunity.

[SadaoOtaLab (RCAST, UTokyo) @soLab_tokyo]

How do you make thousands of intestinal tissues, all the same, all functional? Our lab is sharing answers at the 12th Takeda Science Foundation Symposium—where microengineering meets gut biology. Excited to share, discuss, and learn!

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

@ATinyGreenCell Hi Sebastian, so I wasn't active for a while but yes what's the mystery creature? I'm so curious about it.

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

@ATinyGreenCell Waiting for the sequencing results!

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

Yay! Catch me at the poster no. L027.T to know how you can fit your intestines in a tube!!
I've got u-fluidics, hydrogels, cells, and lots of anecdotes to discuss how we've made them.
Looking forward
@MicroTas2025 #Microfluidics

[SadaoOtaLab (RCAST, UTokyo) @soLab_tokyo]

Back at #MicroTAS2025!
Catch our fantastic folks presenting posters on method development, microphysiological systems, and flow cytometry — all happening Nov 4 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Don’t miss it.

[Dr. Sabrina Green, PhD @MotherOfPhage]

What if we rob the Louvre instead of trying for that big grant?

[Oded Rechavi @OdedRechavi]

No one wants to do a postdoc anymore, they all want to rob the Louvre

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

@sheetal_archery But you look the best in the Indian jersey!! Kudos girl!!

[Rishh @Riocasm]

Mankind's greatest invention ever

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

This is amazing - a periodic table showing every element and how it’s used.

Chemistry really is everywhere. 🔬✨

What’s your favorite element?

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

Happy Diwali..

[Pooja Shukla @HeadsInOcean]

@DrDatta_AIIMS Imagine if it was any indian scientist, probably would've waited for visa issuance 🤣