Aphrodite Chakraborty

Joint Secretary, SYS &
Neurobiology Doctoral Scholar at
AIIMS, New Delhi, India ⚕

*Views are personal, and does not represent those of my institution*

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

@nathancofnas I knew the entire thing was fishy, but not how. Your profile makes it clear. You are no philosopher of anything, let alone biology. You are a charlatan with subpar intellect who happened to be born with low melanin in his skin. Racists like you are a scourge on our species.

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

@FutureStacked I cannot possibly overstate just how BAD the results were when I placed a couple of simple prompts while trying to edit a normal photo of myself (person of color)

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

@Nature We have >8 billion people on the planet. Humanity is not dying of a birth rate decline anytime soon. We may, however, die off due to n number of other problems caused by overpopulation and non-sustainable activities soon.

[Avik Chatterjee @just_avik]

Completely agree with this order. You should never install a VPN, open a Tor connection on Brave, copy the .onion link of Z library from their Wikipedia page and then download literally all books and papers ever

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

Wow!

[Greg Mushen @gregmushen]

For those of you who think fiber is non-essential, I present this chart.

If you don’t have fiber, your gut is going to produce a lot of acetate.

Doesn’t bind to HDAC, will bind to FFAR2, but not 3.

Acetate does not get absorbed by the liver, so it circulates, gets turned into triglycerides via de novo lipogenesis, and ends up as liver fat which makes you insulin resistant over time.

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

I see the word "non-coding" and my eyes light up! This is THE future of biomed.

[nature @Nature]

Scientists are seeking to decipher the role of non-coding DNA in the human genome, helped by a suite of artificial-intelligence tools.

https://t.co/eukCNRLXF3

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

Jaganmoy da is an excellent researcher with whom I am personally acquainted. PIs, unfortunately, often make emerging researchers feel like they're worthless, but stories like his are proof that it is most often the system that is rotten, not the scholar.

[PhDs of India @PhDsofIndia]

“After two failed PhDs and nearly a decade lost, I was emotionally wrecked. My third PI helped me rebuild from the ground up.” @ami_jaganmoy

https://t.co/pgNqKmuhQF

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

I am happy to share that I have been awarded an #IBRONeuroscienceTrainingGrant to support me during my attendance at the 21st San Servolo Advanced Epilepsy Course! ❤️❤️❤️

#IBRO #neuroscience #training #grant #award #IBROinAsiaPacific #IBROinEurope

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

I am doing my PhD without any fellowship since February 2024, begging money for my monthly expenses. DST WISE fellowship was approved in August 2024, sanctioned in November, yet no funds even after 1 month, and no response to official email. How to do research in such distress?

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

@IndiaDST @VandanaDST @PMOIndia I am in great distress due to delays by DST pertaining to DSTWISE scheme. Despite timely completion of formalities from my end, haven’t received funds for my approved fellowship submitted in Dec 2023! My repeated emails remain unanswered! Pls help!

[Ashish Srivastava @AshishOnGround]

Gagging media frm covering uncomfortable news has become a go-to response for @aiims_newdelhi. Security personnel were asked to stop journos on reporting the massive protest by research staff of #AIIMS against @MoHFW_INDIA's peculiar order to cap their research tenure.

[SYS, AIIMS, New Delhi @SysAiims]

(4/4) 2. Revoke memorandum F. 3-40/misc/2023 dated 22.06.2023 and allow joining till final recruitment guidelines are implemented. @PMOIndia @MoHFW_INDIA @aiims_newdelhi @mygovindia

[SYS, AIIMS, New Delhi @SysAiims]

(3/4) We hope our show of solidarity brings fruition to our just demands:
1. Apply revised recruitment guidelines prospectively to ensure that no person currently working at AIIMS, New Delhi is affected negatively.

[SYS, AIIMS, New Delhi @SysAiims]

(2/4) The proposed changes are expected to negatively affect the livelihood of thousands of project staff employed in myriad posts at AIIMS, New Delhi.
We thank all the participants for uniting together and helping us to successfully execute this endeavour.

[SYS, AIIMS, New Delhi @SysAiims]

#saveresearchers
On 03-07-2023, the Society of Young Scientists (SYS), AIIMS, Delhi held a peaceful march from the Director's Lawn through Gate No.1 and back, to express our collective discontentment regarding the proposed project recruitment guidelines at AIIMS, New Delhi. (1/4)

[Tanentzapf Lab @TanentzapfLab]

1. It's really remarkable how much of our scientific funding, hiring & tenure system is built on the fear that, left to their own devices scientists will waste their time studying the wrong things & if given any sort of good job security will just stop doing science altogether.

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

@BhattacharyaLab Congratulations!!!

[Ming "Tommy" Tang @tangming2005]

Over 100 valuable links for learning computational biology. I updated it last night.

Grab it here! #computationalbiology #learning #bioinformatics

https://t.co/z6Sb9Zyhfn

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, the apex center of medical training in the country, has embarked on a mission of embarrassment.

After being held hostage by the Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy) Department, it has become a string puppet with a mission to waste public funds/ tax-payer money to study the unimaginable.

In a new development, the institute has decided to study if genetic diseases can be reduced by the ancient Indian art of stretching, called Yoga.

Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices that include posture-based physical fitness (asanas), breath exercises, and many philosophical aspects that include meditation, mindfulness, concentration, and liberation.

Many Yogic principles are pseudoscientific and philosophical; effects on humans are subjective, hardly objective, unmeasurable, untestable, and cannot be standardized.

For example,
Hatha Yoga uses physical techniques to preserve and channel vital force or energy. It includes wacky principles such as the imaginary presence of Bindu at head (Moon position) end which drips down to abdomen where digestive fire exists (Sun position) and gets lost in semen through ejaculation – this loss of semen results in aging and death. Hatha Yoga helps retain the Bindu in Moon position giving long life. I am not even going into Kundalini Yoga, but do check out the nonsense.

Classical Yoga is not an aerobic exercise and has no benefits beyond mild-modest physical activity. It is inferior to brisk walking, running, cycling, or using an elliptical machine. There are variants of Yoga developed in the West that are rigorous and exertional and then there are mutated forms of Yoga. For example, there is Beer yoga, where participants practice yoga at breweries or taprooms, drinking beer during or after asana practice.

So why is All India Institute of Medical Sciences planning to apply a half-baked stretchy exercise without any evidence for standardization, filled with pseudoscientific principles and flexible philosophies that have not been proven to be superior to any other forms of physical activity, that too, for studying reduction in genetic diseases?

They cite a study showing a reduction in oxidative stress and DNA damage and improvement in sperm DNA integrity following Yoga based lifestyle. I found the study, which has authors from AIIMS only - https://t.co/07EsukiFfD

But unfortunately, this is not a study at all. It was a round table meeting of six people over a nice cup of chai where they chit-chatted on imaginary effects of Yoga on oxidative stress and sperm DNA integrity (based on this irrelevant study https://t.co/rcNfD8gMFh).

They concluded, amongst themselves, without providing any empirical evidence, that Yoga could reduce the mutational load on sperm DNA thereby reducing spontaneous abortions, congenital diseases, and cancer. The best part? It is published in the Journal of Yoga & Physical Therapy, by Longdom Publisher, a predatory, third-rate, low-level open-access journal, without citing any references.

They completely neglected the fact that disease genetics must also include the woman, and the sperm alone can do nothing other than swim into oblivion. They also missed the part where genetic risk has already occurred in the adult male and female, which can be transmitted to the child and disease manifesting depending on the type of mutation and inheritance patterns. No amount of Yoga is going to change that.

The only way to combat genetic diseases is through genetic counselling (https://t.co/qboXNeMgMi) and gene therapies (https://t.co/7dY5HzvOkz)

So, is the reduction in oxidative stress and an improvement in sperm DNA integrity the main reasons for a reduction in genetic diseases and mutations? If so, then these should also make sense.

Improved sleep has been associated with a reduction in oxidative stress and sperm DNA [https://t.co/gAIqz8O8Io& https://t.co/4yWrPmnsy6] and caffeinated coffee reduced oxidative stress [https://t.co/lwnhJROs4t].

Does that mean sleeping early and longer and having coffee also reduce genetic diseases?

Intentional lack of scientific temperament, with the Ayush Ministry taking scientific institutions hostage to promote fraud integrative medicine, and ultra-nationalism driven by the politicization of healthcare have led to the downfall of prestigious institutes like AIIMS.

[Aphrodite Chakraborty @aphrochkraborty]

@IndiaDST @DrJitendraSingh @srivaric @NishaDST123 @VandanaDST When is the WISE PhD scheme going to start ?