Five years ago, in October 2020, my institute appointed me to a full professorship. On this occasion, I select 10 representative research papers we published in the past 5 years. It's been an absolute privilege to work with my super-talented, industrious, and fearless students.
Happy to share that after a long-drawn-out process, my institute has removed the first word of my academic rank. First time in my academic life, I have got a "one-word" description of my position. I thank my incredible students for their contributions and my family for support.π
Every June reminds me of my cliff-hanging life-changing journey to @IIScBangalore (June 1997), almost a fairy tale. I narrated this story in June 2022 on the occasion of 25 years (now 29 years ago). I'm quoting it again if some youngsters want to draw inspiration from my story.π
25 years ago: June 1997. I was selected for the highly competitive & coveted integrated PhD (MS + PhD) program at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. My life changed forever. Whatever little I have done, I owe it to IISc. I narrate a fascinating story. Read on (1/n)
@AliHShaib Totally agree! Science should always be fun! Supplementary Figure 6-7 is quite amazing. Congratulations again on this groundbreaking work. Who knows, at some point, we might be able to use your 1000ExM for our exciting work on biomolecular condensates.
I've been invited to join the Executive Committee of the Society of Biological Chemists (India), headquartered at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Founded in 1930, SBC(I) has been playing a crucial role for ~100 years. Looking forward to working with SBC(I) colleagues.
Thousandfold Expansion Microscopy (1000ExM) is going to revolutionize biological imaging (a billion-fold expansion in volume), entering the Γ ngstrom-scale resolution in optical imaging. Exciting times ahead!
Read the preprint: https://t.co/Y3ubvF7vGB
Hello world, meet 1,000Γ Expansion Microscopy.
1,000,000,000Γ expansion by volume! A gel that starts at a few centimeters will then expand to the volume of an Olympic swimming pool. https://t.co/E43kxx4O5M
In our new bioRxiv preprint, work carried out between MIT and UMG, led by Helena Hu in collaboration with scientists from the labs of @eboyden3 Ed Boyden, Silvio Rizzoli, and myself, we present Thousandfold Expansion Microscopy.
By enlarging biological specimens across multiple rounds of expansion, molecular-scale features, as small as the distances between adjacent amino acids, can be visualized with conventional optical microscopes.
Democratizing super-resolution microscopy.
A must-read piece, "The genie of synthetic biology is out, and with it comes power and peril" by @kvijayraghavan. I will use this article in my freshman BIO-101 course next semester. I should use the brilliant Oppenheimer quote, "See things not as they are, but as they might be."
This is a summary that does not quote from the piece. Do read the piece too. As always, your critical feedback and views are much appreciated. A link to a PDF https://t.co/i2nxlTwmHG