Vikas Navratna
@vikasnavaratna.bsky.social
Scientist. Cook. Research Faculty at the University of Michigan. Membrane protein paparazzi. Dining enthusiast. Immigrant.
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
MISO: microfluidic protein isolation enables single-particle cryo-EM structure determination from a single cell colony.
Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins.
Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg
Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.
Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins.
Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg
Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.
November 14, 2025 at 6:38 PM
MISO: microfluidic protein isolation enables single-particle cryo-EM structure determination from a single cell colony.
Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins.
Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg
Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.
Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins.
Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg
Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.
I think I'm going to do well in 2026!
November 14, 2025 at 12:16 AM
I think I'm going to do well in 2026!
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
Great news: Johns Hopkins makes tuition free for most undergraduate students. ($200k/year or less is about 85% of American households.)
hub.jhu.edu/2025/11/13/j...
hub.jhu.edu/2025/11/13/j...
Johns Hopkins becomes tuition-free for undergraduate students from families earning up to $200,000
New tuition promise program will offer free tuition for students from more than 85% of American households and tuition plus living expenses for families earning up to $100,000
hub.jhu.edu
November 13, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Great news: Johns Hopkins makes tuition free for most undergraduate students. ($200k/year or less is about 85% of American households.)
hub.jhu.edu/2025/11/13/j...
hub.jhu.edu/2025/11/13/j...
Based on this article, the math is terrifying!! As it stands, in the US alone, about 6 million kids will die before they're 5 years of age, due to rare diseases!!
The weird reality of 'rare' diseases is that almost everyone knows someone who is affected by one.
1 in 10 people in the US, and *at least* 1 in 20 globally, will have a rare disease during their lifetime.
1 in 10 people in the US, and *at least* 1 in 20 globally, will have a rare disease during their lifetime.
1 in 10 Americans have a rare disease, but few have treatments
The scientific community has identified more than 10,000 rare diseases, but the path to accurately diagnosing and treating these illnesses has been
www.statnews.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Based on this article, the math is terrifying!! As it stands, in the US alone, about 6 million kids will die before they're 5 years of age, due to rare diseases!!
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
The Gowrishankar lab will be opening its doors @neuro_MUSC on Dec 1, 2025! We will be hiring at all levels. I will also be at @SfNtweets presenting my lab's vision on Wednesday, Nov 19, 8AM-12PM at poster board GG7. If you're interested, please reach out!
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
Gowrishankar Lab
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
November 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
The Gowrishankar lab will be opening its doors @neuro_MUSC on Dec 1, 2025! We will be hiring at all levels. I will also be at @SfNtweets presenting my lab's vision on Wednesday, Nov 19, 8AM-12PM at poster board GG7. If you're interested, please reach out!
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
Who's the number one spice?
Who's the number one spice?
Well, Mr. Cardamom, the number one spice is actually your namesake!
Who's the number one spice?
Well, Mr. Cardamom, the number one spice is actually your namesake!
November 12, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Who's the number one spice?
Who's the number one spice?
Well, Mr. Cardamom, the number one spice is actually your namesake!
Who's the number one spice?
Well, Mr. Cardamom, the number one spice is actually your namesake!
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
"She tells of a student who kept trying to save her meal to carry home, because she didn’t have anything to eat there. Seiber-Garland and her staff found a way to provide her with a second meal for the evening."
All Praise to the Lunch Ladies — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
Blessed are the women who watch over America’s children.
bittersoutherner.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:02 PM
"She tells of a student who kept trying to save her meal to carry home, because she didn’t have anything to eat there. Seiber-Garland and her staff found a way to provide her with a second meal for the evening."
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
New preprint from the lab in collaboration with @sherberg128.bsky.social. By only altering the stiffness of the substrate, we discovered changes in corneal endothelial cell health. This study indicates how physical changes to the Descemet's membrane can affect the endothelium.
Decreased substrate stiffness leads to mitochondrial dysfunctions and Endothelial to Mesenchymal transition through Focal Adhesion Kinase activity in corneal endothelial cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.08.687366v1
November 10, 2025 at 4:38 PM
New preprint from the lab in collaboration with @sherberg128.bsky.social. By only altering the stiffness of the substrate, we discovered changes in corneal endothelial cell health. This study indicates how physical changes to the Descemet's membrane can affect the endothelium.
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
In today’s @insidehighered.com article, @abankston.bsky.social and I draw from our book 'Thriving As An International Scientist' to unpack:
- challenges international scientists in U.S. face
- concrete actions universities, employers & scientific societies can take for their dynamic career success.
- challenges international scientists in U.S. face
- concrete actions universities, employers & scientific societies can take for their dynamic career success.
Career Advice | From Training to Thriving: Building Systems That Support International Scientists
Universities and professional organizations can take practical steps to remove systemic barriers faced by international Ph.D. students and postdocs in their career planning. https://bit.ly/3LuxbfE
Universities and professional organizations can take practical steps to remove systemic barriers faced by international Ph.D. students and postdocs in their career planning. https://bit.ly/3LuxbfE
November 11, 2025 at 12:14 AM
In today’s @insidehighered.com article, @abankston.bsky.social and I draw from our book 'Thriving As An International Scientist' to unpack:
- challenges international scientists in U.S. face
- concrete actions universities, employers & scientific societies can take for their dynamic career success.
- challenges international scientists in U.S. face
- concrete actions universities, employers & scientific societies can take for their dynamic career success.
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
From MBoC... Lois Weisman ( @umichnews.bsky.social ) reveals how one protein’s teamwork — or lack of it — could hold clues to treating childhood neurodegenerative disease.
🔗 www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
🔗 www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
November 10, 2025 at 2:10 PM
From MBoC... Lois Weisman ( @umichnews.bsky.social ) reveals how one protein’s teamwork — or lack of it — could hold clues to treating childhood neurodegenerative disease.
🔗 www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
🔗 www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
The entire interview is great, obviously. But, this is perhaps the best part.
November 10, 2025 at 7:35 PM
The entire interview is great, obviously. But, this is perhaps the best part.
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
Sharing this, quite relevant this week. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Remembering my sister Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958 aged 37 years. Sympathy and feminism
have combined to give us her familiar image as a downtrodden woman scientist, brilliant
but neglected, a heroine t...
www.thelancet.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Sharing this, quite relevant this week. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Oh nooooooo! My chicken drowned in the herbal bath that I drew for them!!
November 8, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Oh nooooooo! My chicken drowned in the herbal bath that I drew for them!!
Made a sandwich for lunch called Not Guilty. Capocollo, mortadella, & salami cotto on homemade sourdough, with bell peppers, cucumber, Kewpie mayo, mint chutney, and of course onions & mustard.
November 6, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Made a sandwich for lunch called Not Guilty. Capocollo, mortadella, & salami cotto on homemade sourdough, with bell peppers, cucumber, Kewpie mayo, mint chutney, and of course onions & mustard.
Lol. It is like a game of 'one of these is not like the others'.
November 5, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Lol. It is like a game of 'one of these is not like the others'.
Those who haven't eaten biryani, don't know what its negotiating powers are. You leave a suspicious windowless van on the street marked "free biryani", & people will just get into it voluntarily.
Late night biryani with taxi drivers at Kebab King in Jackson Heights.
October 31, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Those who haven't eaten biryani, don't know what its negotiating powers are. You leave a suspicious windowless van on the street marked "free biryani", & people will just get into it voluntarily.
This Halloween I'm going as the tenure-track job market! Kinda funny that if I replace 'as' with 'on', it only makes it scarier.
October 31, 2025 at 5:08 PM
This Halloween I'm going as the tenure-track job market! Kinda funny that if I replace 'as' with 'on', it only makes it scarier.
I ate almost 2-3 times a month at Grassa, for almost 5 years that I stayed in PDX. Fantastic affordable & delicious Italian fare!! Their meatballs and garlic bread are the best I've ever eaten. If you are in PDX, support them!!
www.oregonlive.com/food/2025/10...
www.oregonlive.com/food/2025/10...
Here are 13 Portland-area coffee shops and restaurants that have pledged to feed people who lose SNAP benefits
The restaurants are doing what they can to feed people in the community.
www.oregonlive.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:20 AM
I ate almost 2-3 times a month at Grassa, for almost 5 years that I stayed in PDX. Fantastic affordable & delicious Italian fare!! Their meatballs and garlic bread are the best I've ever eaten. If you are in PDX, support them!!
www.oregonlive.com/food/2025/10...
www.oregonlive.com/food/2025/10...
Wonder how they found time for this amidst all that burning that they had to do?
The people yearn for (democratic) socialism (this one will make you cry)
October 30, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Wonder how they found time for this amidst all that burning that they had to do?
Baked Chicken Kebab. Marinate for 24 hrs in a brine made of garlic, turmeric, & sriracha, in the refrigerator. Pat the chicken dry. Cut into 1-2" wide strips. Toss them in a thick yogurt based tandoori marinade. Let it rest for a couple of hours at room temp. Skewer them & bake for 40 min at 350F.
October 28, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Baked Chicken Kebab. Marinate for 24 hrs in a brine made of garlic, turmeric, & sriracha, in the refrigerator. Pat the chicken dry. Cut into 1-2" wide strips. Toss them in a thick yogurt based tandoori marinade. Let it rest for a couple of hours at room temp. Skewer them & bake for 40 min at 350F.
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
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The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
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Reposted by Vikas Navratna
Now online @nature.com!
Want to change the consequences of receptor activation?
Small molecules binding the GPCR-transducer interface change G protein subtype preference in predictable ways, enabling rational drug design 💥
So many new possibilities! 🧪🧠🟦
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵👇
Want to change the consequences of receptor activation?
Small molecules binding the GPCR-transducer interface change G protein subtype preference in predictable ways, enabling rational drug design 💥
So many new possibilities! 🧪🧠🟦
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵👇
Designing allosteric modulators to change GPCR G protein subtype selectivity - Nature
Studies of the G-protein-coupled receptor NTSR1 show that the G protein selectivity of this receptor can be modified by small molecules, enabling the design of drugs that work by switching receptor su...
www.nature.com
October 27, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Now online @nature.com!
Want to change the consequences of receptor activation?
Small molecules binding the GPCR-transducer interface change G protein subtype preference in predictable ways, enabling rational drug design 💥
So many new possibilities! 🧪🧠🟦
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵👇
Want to change the consequences of receptor activation?
Small molecules binding the GPCR-transducer interface change G protein subtype preference in predictable ways, enabling rational drug design 💥
So many new possibilities! 🧪🧠🟦
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵👇
Reposted by Vikas Navratna
Unveiling conformation-selective regulation of the norepinephrine transporter pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41138730/ #cryoem
October 26, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Unveiling conformation-selective regulation of the norepinephrine transporter pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41138730/ #cryoem
20 hr brine-marinated chicken thighs, baked two ways. Left - Kewpie mayo, soy sauce, & gochugaru. Right - in a sauce base made of tomatillos, shallots, & jalapenos. Both for 45 min at 350F.
October 24, 2025 at 2:02 AM
20 hr brine-marinated chicken thighs, baked two ways. Left - Kewpie mayo, soy sauce, & gochugaru. Right - in a sauce base made of tomatillos, shallots, & jalapenos. Both for 45 min at 350F.