india alliance newsletter i issue 9 i may 2016
DESCRIPTION
The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Bimonthly Newsletter.TRANSCRIPT
News & Views Issue 9
May 2016
INDIA ALLIANCE
We are pleased to bring to you the ninth issue of the India Alliance Newsletter. These Newsletters provide updates on India Alliance
Fellowship schemes, funded research and its other activities such as Science communication workshops and Public Engagement
events. They also feature interesting research stories and interviews. Please send your comments and suggestions for these newsletters to
[email protected] so that we can make these a more useful read for you.
Updates on Fellowships: Interviews for the Senior and Intermediate Fellowships (SIF, basic research scheme) were held in April in
Chandigarh, results of which will be announced shortly. Applications submitted for the Margdarshi Fellowships, Clinical and Public Health
(CPH) Fellowships, and Senior and Intermediate Fellowships (basic research scheme) are currently under review. We are presently
accepting applications for our Early Career Fellowships (basic research scheme). Call for applications will be made for Senior and
Intermediate Fellowships (SIF; basic research scheme) and Research Training Fellowships in July 2016.
Professor Rakesh Aggarwal (Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India) joined our Early Career
Fellowship committee and Professor Raman Bedi (Department of Population & Patient Health, King's College London, United Kingdom),
Dr Matthew Burton (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and Professor Sudhir Krishna (National Centre for Biological
Sciences, Bangalore) are now part of the Clinical and Public Health Fellowship committee. We would like to welcome them to the India
Alliance family and look forward to our association with them. We are thankful to our Senior and Intermediate Fellowship committee
members for participating at the one-day symposium organised at IISER Mohali on 20 April.
On the Public Engagement front, India Alliance supported, the Undivided Mind, a six-week long Art & Science Programme at Khoj
International Artists' Association which concluded successfully on April 17. This issue includes a short report on the programme and the
health/science-inspired artwork that was displayed on the Open day. This programme also brought together some of our Fellows and
the artists to discuss and collaborate on similar creative projects in the future. We will update you on this and more in our subsequent
issues. After the first public event on antibiotic resistance in Hyderabad in the “Voices for Health” series, the next programme will focus
on cancer in the North eastern Indian states and will be held in Shillong tentatively in July. More information on this will be shared on
our website shortly.
On the Science Communication front, our SciComm team conducted a one-day SciComm101 workshop at the National Institute for
Research in Reproductive Health on May 4 which was attended by around 80 PhD students and Postdoc researchers from 14 different
research institutions from around Mumbai. On March 21-22, we held our 13th biannual Science Communication workshop in Hyderabad
which had participants from 27 institutions from across the country. Our next biannual two-day workshop will be held in Hyderabad on
26-27 September 2016. Application forms for this workshop will be available on our website shortly. In keeping with our vision to
empower the communicators in young scientists and to enable them to make informed career choices, India Alliance has entered into a
partnership with Nature India to organise Science Communication and Career Workshop series. More information on this series is
included in this newsletter.
The recent Big data revolution is an important turning point for health research and for the medical field in general. In this issue, our
Early Career Fellow at AIIMS New Delhi, Dr Tavpritesh Sethi and his supervisor Dr Rakesh Lodha, have written an important piece “Data
science for Medicine: Unicorns and Workhorses” based on their current research which intends to integrate clinical and Big data to
enable early detection of sepsis in Paediatric Intensive Care Units. This issue also includes interviews of leading neurobiologist, Dr Vidita
Vaidya, associate professor at TIFR Mumbai, Dr Supriya Ray, Intermediate Fellow at Allahabad University and Dr Bela Desai, India
Alliance Grants Adviser. Heartfelt gratitude to them for sharing interesting and useful insights on their work and life. The Research
Highlights section features recently published work of Intermediate Fellow Dr Guruprasad Medigeshi that provides novel insights into
immune response of children to dengue infection and BBC news story on the SMART Mental Health programme led by Intermediate
Fellow Dr Pallab Maulik, which aims to provide mobile-based affordable evidence based mental health services in rural India. A big
thank you to all of them for sharing their novel research stories.
Last but not the least, thank you to Dr Tavpritesh Sethi for sharing the cover image. This image was one of the entries of the India
Alliance Research Image competition 2015.
We will continue to bring to you interesting research stories, announcements and discussions and as always look forward to your
valuable comments and suggestions.
Best wishes,
Sarah Iqbal, PhD
Public Engagement Officer
EDITORIAL
1.
CONTENTS
3 INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCEMENTS
Call for applications for Early Career Fellowships (basic scheme)
4 INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOWS
New Intermediate Fellows: Dr Abi T Vanak, Dr Shivarama Varambally
5 PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT CORNER
Art & Science programme, One-day symposium at IISER Mohali
9 SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
SciComm Hyderabad, SciComm101and Science Communication & Career workshop series
11 IN CONVERSATION WITH..
Prof Vidita Vaidya, Associate Professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai
12 INDIA ALLIANCE RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Dr Guruprasad Medigeshi, Dr Pallab Maulik
13 INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOW IN SPOTLIGHT
Dr Supriya Ray, Intermediate Fellow, Allahabad University
15 DATA SCIENCE FOR MEDICINE: UNICORNS AND WORKHORSES
by Dr Tavpritesh Sethi & Dr Rakesh Lodha, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
18 INDIA ALLIANCE STAFF CORNER
Dr Bela Desai, Grants Adviser, India Alliance
2
Eligibility:
• Applicant must be in the final year of PhD or have no more
than four years of post-PhD research experience from the
date of PhD viva to the full application submission deadline
(August 2016 for the current round of competition); due
consideration will be given to justified career breaks
• Applicant can have a PhD in any discipline of science
• There are no restrictions based on age or nationality
• Applicant need not be resident in India while applying, but
should be aspiring to launch an independent research career in
India
• Applicant must choose a not-for-profit host institution in India
that will administer the Fellowship for the full duration (5 years)
of the award. The applicant and the host institution will have to
abide by the India Alliance policies on time commitment.
• Applicant may or may not have a faculty position
Remit:
Full spectrum of biomedical science from fundamental molecular
and cellular studies through Clinical and Public Health research**
Interdisciplinary projects are welcome
Provisions:
The upper limit for an award is INR 1.7 Crores. The 5-year
Fellowship typically provides:
• Competitive personal support
• Generous research funds
• Funding to work overseas for up to 2 years and develop
international collaborations
Essentials on the application:
• A research proposal that seeks to answer an original
biomedical research question
• A Fellowship Supervisor who would supervise the applicant in
the proposed research and a letter of support to this end
• An additional letter of recommendation
Preliminary applications due by 6 June, 2016
Application forms will be available from 2 May, 2016 on the
India Alliance online application System (IASys) at
https://fellowships.wellcomedbt.org/Login.aspx
Please visit http://wellcomedbt.org/fellowships/early-career-
fellowships for further information on eligibility, remit, provisions,
and the application process. Queries may be addressed to
**We encourage Clinicians and Public Health researchers to apply in
the separate Clinical and Public Health competition which would be
announced later. Please check for updates at
http://wellcomedbt.org/fellowshiptype/clinical-and-public-health-
research-fellowships
3.
RECENTLY RECOMMENDED AWARDEES
EARLY CAREER FELLOWSHIPS 2016
This is a mentored Fellowship programme that provides a
unique opportunity for postdoctoral researchers to carry out
research in India towards building an independent research
career.
* indicates newly awarded host institute
Dr Sveta Chakrabarti, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Dr Mohammad Tauqeer Alam, Indian Institute of Technology
Delhi*, New Delhi
Dr Gajinder Pal Singh, International Centre for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi
Ms Paulomi Sanghavi, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,
Mumbai
Dr Arunabha Chakrabarti, Tata Translational Cancer Research
Centre, Kolkata
Dr Debojyoti Chakraborty, Institute of Genomics and Integrative
Biology, New Delhi
Dr Aditi Maulik, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Dr Nisha N K, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram
Dr Preethi Badrinarayan, Institute of Microbial Technology,
Chandigarh
Dr Chitra P, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences,
Bangalore
Dr Anchal Chandra, National Centre for Biological Sciences,
Bangalore
INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
EARLY CAREER FELLOWSHIPS Preliminary Application Deadline: 6 June 2016
CLINICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH
INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOWS
I am an ecologist with broad interests in animal movement ecology,
disease ecology, savanna ecosystems and wildlife in human-
dominated systems. I completed my MSc in Wildlife Science from
the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun in 1997, and worked for
several years with research and conservation organisations in India.
In 2008 I received a PhD from the University of Missouri studying
the competitive dynamics between free-ranging domestic dogs and
a native carnivore, the Indian fox. Subsequent to this, I did a post-
doc at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, studying the
movement ecology of elephants, large African carnivores and
savanna ecosystem dynamics. I returned to India in 2012 as an
inaugural National Environment Sciences Fellow of the Ministry of
Environment and Forests. At the same time, I was accepted as a
faculty member at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the
Environment (ATREE), in Bangalore.
My research in India has spanned across my interests, with projects
on the conservation of semi-arid savanna grasslands in peninsular
India, the adaptation of mesocarnivores to human-dominated
landscapes, and the impact of invasive species on grasslands. My
interests in disease ecology, which started during my PhD research
on dogs, has led me to explore the dynamics of pathogen
transmission between dogs and native carnivores. A natural
extension of this then was to examine zoonoses such as rabies that
are transmitted by the massive dog population in India (~60
million).
My motivation for the India Alliance fellowship
stemmed from a deceptively simple question: Why
is India not yet rabies free? At 20,000/annum (likely a
huge underestimate), India has the highest human mortalities from
rabies, with almost all of them being contracted from dogs. Yet,
rabies control measures are based on data obtained from other
countries with very different dog demography and ownership
patterns, and it is therefore no surprise that they have not been
properly implemented, and not really worked. With this
project I plan to examine rabies in India under the
“OneHealth” framework by combining ecology,
epidemiology and human health.
4.
I received my MBBS from Mysore Medical College and MD
(Psychiatry) from NIMHANS. At NIMHANS, I was lucky to be
mentored by Prof. B N Gangadhar and seniors like Dr.
Venkatasubramanian. The training at NIMHANS inculcated an
interest in the neurobiology of Schizophrenia and other psychotic
disorders.
A period of work in Australia from 2005 – 2007 broadened my
worldview and enabled me to understand that psychiatric disorders
though universal, are colored to a significant extent by societal
norms and environmental influences. On my return from Australia to
join as a faculty at NIMHANS, I continued work on neurobiological
factors in Schizophrenia, particularly soft neurological signs. I am
currently working as an Additional Professor of Psychiatry at the
Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS.
I also developed an inclination for studying the use and mechanisms
of action of Yoga as a therapeutic tool in neuropsychiatry. At the
NIMHANS Yoga Centre, we have evaluated the therapeutic
potential for yoga in psychiatric disorders and also attempted to
critically evaluate and improve existing paradigms in yoga
research with a view to bring it into the mainstream of medicine.
Our studies on the effect of yoga in depression, mild cognitive
impairment, and in particular psychosis, have been pathbreaking
and well-recognized.
My India Alliance-funded research aims to test the effects and
mechanisms of a validated yoga module as an add-on treatment in
schizophrenia. The efficacy is proposed to be tested through a
randomized controlled study assessing clinical symptoms, emotion
processing, quality of life, and real-world functioning.
The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance
Intermediate Fellowship seemed an ideal pathway
for me to pursue my twin interests in the
neurobiology of Schizophrenia as well as the use
of Yoga in psychiatric disorders, and will hopefully
provide scientific evidence for the neuroplastic
effects of yoga in this enigmatic disorder.
Dr Abi. T Vanak Clinical and Public Health Research
Intermediate Fellow 2015 Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore Website
Dr Shivarama Varambally Clinical and Public Health Research
Intermediate Fellow 2015
National Institute of Mental Health and
Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore
Website
Yoga and Schizophrenia – a comprehensive assessment of neuroplasticity
Bringing "OneHealth" to rabies research in India: Integrating animal ecology, disease ecology and human health
INDIA ALLIANCE PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT CORNER
ART & SCIENCE PROGRAMME
For centuries, science and art and those engaged in these fields, have
shaped the society and have informed each other’s practices. But more
recently there have been few active exchanges between the two fields
which have increasingly been seen as unconnected. This notion was
addressed and challenged at the recently held, the Undivided Mind,
Art and Science residency organised by one of the leading
contemporary art spaces in the country, Khoj International Artists
Association, from March 7 to April 15, 2016, wherein the participants
explored the distinct yet connected fields of art, science, health,
technology and design. Seven artists at the residency, from India and
abroad, who were selected through a competition, brought with them
different artistic insights and expertise and a keen interest to engage
in a dialogue with scientists and other practitioners of STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Medicine) and social sciences. During the
six weeks, the artists explored various science and health-related
themes which ranged from, terrestrial and extra-terrestrial experience
of a four-armed human being, “tub of loss”- to experience the loss of
body (similar to in space) to urban laboratory for birds, wearable
sculptures to protect from air pollution and a body suit mimicking
microorganism invasion of our bodies. The artwork also reflected on
human conditions such as abnormal perception (schizophrenia) and
hysterectomy. The Open Studio Day at Khoj on 15 April 2016,
exhibited work by Tyska Samborska (Poland), Gagan Singh (India),
Johanna Schmeer (Germany), Mohan Polamar & Vivek
Muthuramalingam (India) Alexey Buldakov (Russia), and Sonia Khurana
(India). The artwork was presented as a collection of photographs,
videos, sculptures, sketches and installations. During the residency, the
artists also got the opportunity to interact and engage in conversations
with scientists, social scientists, science writers, philosophers and other
artists during a two-day public lecture series that invited eminent
speakers, Anil Ananthaswamy, Milind Sohoni, Bishnu Mohapatra, Sanil V
and Ashis Nandy, touched upon answers to questions- “how do these two cultures (of art and science) define the mind, the self and the other? How
does the greater project of science influence how we organize our lives, our politics, society and culture? Can the arts provide a critique of the
scientific endeavour or help express the cultural ambivalence towards the promise that science has offered?”. The programme also fostered
conversations and collaborations between the artists and India Alliance Fellows. For instance, sketch artist, Gagan Singh consulted and spent long
hours discussing mirror neurons and synesthesia with India Alliance Early Career Fellow Urvakhsh Mehta, associate professor at National Institute
for Mental Health and Neuroscience (NIMHANS). Following this residency, some of the artists and India Alliance Fellows are currently
brainstorming ideas together for similar creative public engagement projects.
The Unidivided Mind, attempted to bridge the gap between the discursive fields of art and science through the development of artwork inspired
by human health and which employed concepts of science and provided a platform for collaboration between the two fields and its practitioners.
This Art and Science programme was supported by the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance through its public engagement programme.
More on the programme: http://khojworkshop.org/programme/the-undivided-mind-art-science-residency-2/
Photos from the Open Studio day can be found here https://www.facebook.com/India.Alliance/
5.
Entangled Bodies Johanna Schmeer
“Entangled Bodies” (work in progress) investigates the merging of
technology and the human body. Three sculptural wearables for the arm, the
leg, and the nose utilise three different technologies based on electricity,
nanoparticles, and biology. These sculptural wearables remove three
different types of air pollution: NO2, CO2, and particulate matter.
The NO2 Wearable is a 3D printed sculpture coated with nano
titaniumdioxide which removes NO2 from the air. It is connected to the nose.
The CO2 Wearable is a 3D printed sculpture filled with spirulina algae in
sodium alginate gel. It removes CO2 from the air and is worn on the arm.
The Particulate Matter Wearable is a 3D printed sculpture with electrostatic
properties. It uses kinetic energy from body movement to remove particulate
matter from the air and is connected to the leg.
Show me what you keep inside
Tyska Samborska
'Show me what you keep inside' is a project referring to the theme of
physical health and structure of the body. I concentrate my work on the
relations between our body as nourishment for microorganisms living inside
that could take control over our condition and the opposite; the consideration
of microorganisms as necessary, essential elements to keep our body healthy.
In this project, I try to look at a situation where microorganisms start to grow
and become dangerous for a human body, when roles start to change and
our body becomes weak, so easy to destroy and to be consumed.
I attempt to question importance of our body in the ecosystem and show its
dependence on other, smaller but also strong organisms. I try to make more
visible our 'invisible', interior part.
In a time when technology is increasingly moving onto and into our bodies, and smart phones have become prostheses for our brains, how do we
feel about becoming more and more entangled in technology, even for essential bodily functions such as breathing? Have we grown so
accustomed to digital technology and electronics that wearing something biological like algae on our body feels more unnatural to us than
wearing something electronic? And will we choose to adapt our own bodies to the environmental effects of the anthropocene through more
technology, or will we find strategies to reduce our impact on our surroundings?
Urban Fauna Laboratory Alexey Buldakov
Urban Fauna Laboratory is interdisciplinary project dedicated to observation of
urban wild life and artistic participation in the inter-species interactions in the city. The
main interest is the most common inhabitants of artificial landscapes: such expansive
species as pigeons, cats, crows, ruderal and invasive flora etc. – those synanthropes
who are not vulnerable to the modern city’s severe ecological conditions and don't
represent a direct threat to the human.
Interspecies altruism in the city is an unconscious attempt towards pure affiliation with
natural agency. It has all characteristics of a cult practice, continuous ritualistic event
happening on the background of segregation human and animal. Buldakov calls it
the ‘cult of urban parasitism’. This is because the most prominent definition for these
animals is parasites. I’m very determined to find and investigate interesting cases of
urban parasitism in India.
The main goal of Urban Fauna Laboratory is actual building of the Park of Urban
Fauna. The Park is a multispecies public space, an area of post-human bio-political
utopia. The place where the human community and communities of local animals are
experiencing intense interaction. During the residency, Buldakov will summon all the
elements together and produce the final design of the Park in sketches and models.
INDIA ALLIANCE
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT CORNER THE ARTWORK
6.
Photo credits: Vivek Muthuramalingam, Tyska Samborska
Womb narratives
Sonia Khurana
women. Voice. Video. 2016
Womb narratives is an ongoing series of conversation with women
from different walks, with scientists, psychologists, medicine
women/men those who work on the ground level with hysterectomy,
its physio-psycho-social effect, and the striking normalisation of the
loss of this organ transcribed onto the body: how the removal of an
organ is seen as a ‘permanent solution’ and becomes routine
treatment. There are also the counter-narratives: women's attitudes
towards uterus removal often emerge along a spectrum including
freedom and pragmatic choice.
The narratives these women recount express the profound encounter
between medical science, the representation of female
reproductive processes and the whole complex of female desire
related to sexuality, maternity and sterilization, either for
achievement or negation, evidences the rebelliousness against
continuing to follow the cultural destiny of women, i.e. maternity.
Becoming sterilized, women also reveal the subjective castration
desire, for surgical sterilization could be considered as deviation or
substitution of desire, and may contribute to the understanding of
the ambiguity or even feelings of loss.
Gagan Singh
Thoughts, drawings, immediate responses, how I think, little acts, conversations. The room was
occupied to draw out a scene responding to what is "mental illness". I was in touch with Dr Urvakhsh
Mehta about what is Schizophrenia and Mirror Neurons and in between I noticed little things about
myself.
INDIA ALLIANCE
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT CORNER THE ARTWORK
Mohan Polamar & Vivek Muthuramalingam
This piece of work is immersive, experiential and performance based. Ideas
will be introduced and supporting experiences will be induced both
vicariously and directly. These ideas will challenge the concept of being
human in this period of climate change. This technozoosemiotic installation
that brings together bio-art, neuroscience, robotics and the theories of
quantum mechanics will lay lightly on the grotesque. Grotesque being in the
fringes of ludicrous and terrible embeds in itself a powerful temperament
that brings the necessary to radical.
I become a Bangalorian when I leave Bangalore likewise, we become human
when we leave earth. As climate change ravages the earth the option of
interplanetary travel becomes urgent, leading us to train our focus on space
travel technology and evolution of the astronaut.
Astronauts lose weight in space and are left with resistance to remind themselves of their body. Yoga is similar as it is the practice of
interchanging weight and resistance within oneself. Continuous practice of Yoga became the foundation of the process. We built sensory
deprivation tank to experience weightlessness and to challenge the vestibular system, conducted kinematic study of asanas looking for clues in
its geometry and created objects that induce the experience of proprioception.
In space every concept spins on its head, like being superman is not being super at all. In space, astronauts become super if they can stay
grounded. The process threw up many ideas within the pre-defined confines of evolution and aesthetics. We chose one of the ideas and it
brought along with it the concept of the grotesque. So we studied the aesthetic, functionality and the extremity of this grotesque with a series
of pictures merging the experience of the astronaut with the plebeian.
Wandering womb
Nylon object, vitrine, water
Hippocrates said:
a woman's uterus is a living creature
that wanders throughout a woman’s body,
blocking passages, obstructing breathing, causing disease.
Missing womb
Self-cleansing, both external and internal, as a metaphor for the
liberation of the soul from the body, as the practice of self-
regulation that aims to consolidate and stabilize the interiority of
the subject against the disturbing effects of the impure external
world – purging one of historically accumulated sources of psychic
instability :the term ‘hysteria’ is the ancient origin of the word
‘uterus’.
7.
INDIA ALLIANCE SYMPOSIUM
CELLS TO CELLULAR PROGRAMMING 20 April 2016, IISER Mohali
The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance and IISER Mohali
organised a one-day symposium titled “ Cells to Cellular
programming” at IISER Mohali on 20 April. Scientific talks were
given by India Alliance Fellowship Committee members. In the
afternoon session of the symposium, India Alliance Fellows and
PhD students from IISER Mohali, IMTECH and Panjab University ,
presented posters and discussed their research work with the
committee members and other attendees.
8.
Prof Shankar Subramaniam Prof Noel J Buckley
Prof Shyni Varghese Prof Ranajit Chakraborty
Prof Raimond L Winslow Prof Francois Guillemot
Prof Douglas Young Dr Shahid Jameel
INDIA ALLIANCE
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION WORKSHOPS
9.
The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance’s 13th Science
Communication workshop was held in Hyderabad from 21-22
March 2016 which was attended by 30 PhD students, Postdocs,
junior Faculty and Clinicians from 27 different institutions across
India such as University of Madras, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi,
Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, Public
Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, Advanced Centre for
Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) Tata
Memorial Centre, Mumbai, Center for Cellular and Molecular
Biology, Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Science Education and
Research, Pune, George Institute for Global Health, Hyderabad, Sri
Sai College of Dental Surgery, Vikarabad, National Institute of
Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, National Centre for Cell Science
(NCCS) Pune, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, Indian
Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, LEPRA
Society-Blue Peter Public Health and Research Centre, Hyderabad,
AIIMS, New Delhi, Institute of Advanced Study in Science and
Technology, Guwahati, Assam, India, Chebrolu Hanumaiah Institute
of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guntur, National Institute of Mental
Health and Neuroscience (NIMHANS) Bangalore, Savitribai Phule
Pune University, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore,
Tamil Nadu, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Lady Irwin
College, New Delhi, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences,
Wardha, National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis NIRT (ICMR),
University of Delhi, Mumbai University, University of Mysore
The first day of the workshop focused on oral presentation
skills and important elements of an effective professional
presentation. This session was conducted by Ms Sumathy Haridas,
an HR consultant and behavior analyst from Bangalore, who gave
useful advice on how to prepare the message of a presentation,
appear confident, speak articulately and engage the audience.
Her session consisted of various hands-on exercises for the
participants that ensured active participation. Some of the
participants also received feedback on their PowerPoint
presentations during this session. Grants Adviser, Dr Madhankumar
Anandhakrishnan concluded the first day by giving a brief
overview of the India Alliance Fellowship schemes and
application process. The participants discussed various issues
concerning the workshop, career choices and their current research
with the India Alliance staff and the workshop mentors over the
Networking dinner.
The second day of the workshop covered topics such as, Ethics
in Research, Mentorship, Grant and Manuscript writing, talks on
which were given by Dr Joe Varghese (Research Ethics; Christian
Medical College Vellore), Dr Thomas Pucadyil (Manuscript writing,
IISER Pune), Dr Vidita Vaidya (Mentorship, TIFR Mumbai), and Dr
Shahid Jameel (Grants writing, CEO, Wellcome Trust/DBT India
Alliance). The Mentors stimulated various discussions on these topics
and ensured the participants were not wary of asking important
questions about research career development, setting up a lab,
postdoc opportunities, and many more. The highlight of the
workshop for the participants was the research proposal discussion,
where participants received useful feedback and advice on the
structure and content of their proposals from the mentors.
The enthusiasm and active questioning at the workshop by the
participants reinforced the importance of Science Communication in
nurturing and training the future researchers of India.
The next two-day Science Communication workshop in Hyderabad will
be held on 26-27 September 2016. Announcements for the same will
be made on our website shortly.
INDIA ALLIANCE
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION WORKSHOPS
Two-day SciComm workshop
26-27 September 2016, Hyderabad Application form will be available online
at www.wellcomdbt.org on 23 May
For more details visit "SciComm Workshop" under "Quick Links" on our website
Upcoming Workshops
10.
The one-day Science Communication workshop, SciComm101, was
held at the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health in
Mumbai, where around 80 PhD students, and Postdoctoral scientists
were trained. Apart from the participants from the hosting institution,
attendees came from various other academic and research
establishments, such as, IIT Bombay Rafkine Mumbai University Seth GS
Medical college Sunandan Divatia School of School of Science SVKMs
NMIMS Ramnarain Ruia College P.D Hinduja National Hospital and
MRC Jaslok hospital and research center Haffkine Institute Narsee
Monjee Institute S. L. Raheja Hospital Tata Memorial Hospital UM-DAE
Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences National Institute of
Immunohaematology.
Please visit our website http://wellcomedbt.org/science-
communication-workshop for more information on these workshops
and for requesting one at your institution.
One-day SciComm101 workshop National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, 4 May 2016
Science Communication and Career workshop series In partnership with Nature India & Naturejobs
The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance has entered into a partnership
with Nature India for organising one-day workshops at scientific
meetings in India. These workshops will aim to equip young science
researchers with tools and strategies for effective communication of
their ideas, experiments and scientific results from a science
communication perspective and help them to make science career
choices.
Structure & format
The workshop will be a one-day event preceding a biomedical (or
scientific) conference organised by reputed science
societies/organisations/institutes and Universities in India. A large
participation by PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and junior
scientists will be a pre-requisite for holding this workshop. The
workshop will include 3 separate sessions and will cover 2-3 topics
per session depending on the requirements:
Session 1: Scientific Writing (moderated by WT/DBT Alliance)
Topics to be covered:
• Ethics in research
• Presentation skills
• Manuscript writing
• Grants writing
• CVs and letters
Session 2: Science Communication (moderated by Nature India)
Topics to be covered:
• Science journalism
• Popular science writing
• Effective press releases
• Hands-on skills on dejargonising science
Session 3: Alternate Science Career (moderated by Nature Jobs)
Topics to be covered:
• Career in the Industry
• Career in Science Promotion/Intellectual Property
• Career in Policy/Grant organizations / Journalism
If you would like to request this workshop at a conference you are
organising please write to [email protected] with the
expression of interest.
One-day SciComm and Career workshop 18 October 2016
XXXIV Annual Meeting of Indian Academy of Neurosciences
NBRC, Manesar
IN CONVERSATION WITH
DR VIDITA VAIDYA
Dr Vidita Vaidya is an associate professor at TIFR Mumbai and a leading
neurobiologist in the country. Her research group is interested in the pathways that
regulate adult neurogenesis and their contribution to depression-related behavior. Their
lab uses pharmacological and genetic approaches, and tools such as microarrays, in situ
hybridization, immunohistochemistry and behavioral tests to understand the neurocircuitry
of emotion. Dr Vaidya is a recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and
Technology for Medical Sciences in 2015 and is a Senior Overseas Research Fellow of
the Wellcome Trust.
What motivated you to become a scientist?
As a 12 year old kid I remember sitting in a cold auditorium at the
Ciba-Geigy Research Centre in Goregaon, Mumbai listening to a
fascinating talk by visiting scientists on the aggressive behavior of the
hippopotamus. I remember walking back home to our house with my
parents, both physician-scientists, and telling them that I thought
studying behavior was the coolest thing. Growing up on the Ciba-
Geigy Research Centre, I had plenty of opportunities to be around
scientists of all different hues, including my parents. So it wasn't very
surprising perhaps that I found myself veering towards the sciences. It
was a home in which scientific curiosity was always encouraged. It was
also a home in which storytelling was part and parcel of all
conversations. My grandfather who lived with us was a novelist and
we had poets and writers in the extended family. To be able to get
airtime at the dining table it was important to be able to tell a story. I
meandered through a phase of an interest in archaeology and
anthropology. I was fascinating by what made people tick and what
were the drivers of individual personality traits and quirks. While
there was no one Aha! moment in which I knew I wanted to be a
neuroscientist, everything I got interested and excited in, took me
towards trying to understand behavior. By the time I was 18 I knew I
wanted to eventually study the brain and behavior, and I wanted to
head that way through a broad degree in Life science rather than
studying medicine.
Could you briefly take us through your scientific journey and
about your interest in studying the brain?
I did my undergraduate in Life sciences and Biochemistry at St
Xavier’s College. Post that I headed to Yale University, USA for my
PhD. My first rotation was in a lab that did not feel was the right fit. It
was highly competitive but I worried that all the fun and magic may
get sucked out of science if I stayed in that environment for my PhD.
My second rotation was in the lab of Prof Ronald Duman, and I knew I
had found my PhD lab. I loved the questions the lab was asking and
the atmosphere in which they were doing so. The Duman lab is
focused on studying the neurobiology of depression. I spent five years
there and took away with me a life-long interest in studying
neurocircuits that regulate emotion. I also realised that since our entire
life-span is spent largely grappling with the research questions we
chase. To do so in an environment in which we are happy and
productive and are able to take our work seriously but perhaps not
take ourselves too seriously, is critical. I gained some amazing mentors
who have continued to be the cheering section, critics and support
group long after I graduated from Yale. After two short postdoctoral
stints at Karolinska and Oxford I was champing at the bit to come
home and start my own lab. I was very lucky that the Department of
Biological Sciences at TIFR was willing to take a gamble with a young
29 year old.
What according to you are the challenges women scientists face in
India? What solutions would you offer?
The challenges that women scientists face in India perhaps don't differ
so much from those faced by women scientists all over the world. The
scientific community has traditionally been a male bastion and so
women are amongst the new faces on the block in that sense. In some
ways we are facing all the issues that new entrants face in established
domains. We challenge status quo and by doing so create a certain
degree of discomfort. Of course, the natural and important question
that comes up is whether a status quo that has systematically left out
half the population is even worth protecting. Change of this scale is
slow but needs to really be speeded up. The number of women in
senior scientific positions is seriously limited. We have a leaky pipeline
and seeking to plug it is viewed almost as relaxing the rules. But
perhaps it is time to ask what are the rules that have resulted in our
present situation, which has led to a serious paucity of women in the
STEM disciplines. We need to change the framework that results in this
kind of exclusion. It will not be sufficient to simply apply a few
bandage solutions. In India, we need to work at so many different
levels from the earliest stages of education all the way to institutions
that need to sort out their working environment to be more gender-
sensitive. There is unfortunately no fast, fix it solution. It needs a multi-
pronged approach at multiple levels.
If you were not a scientist, you would be..
A teacher - I love the idea of having the chance to share "oh this is so
cool" moments with the younger generation.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Retain the ability to laugh at yourself- it makes the most awful
moments slowly switch into being ludicrous.
Your message for young students and researchers.
Make sure that your choices in science don't take you
down a road in which the magic, fun and joy of
science disappears.
11.
Of all the mosquito-borne viruses, dengue virus accounts for maximum
disease burden with close to two-third of the world population living
in dengue endemic areas. India contributes to about 35% of global
dengue cases and as per the recent estimates, the total economic cost
of dengue in India is over $1 billion. The first dengue vaccine has
been introduced for use in children over 9 years of age and adults in
few countries. Further studies are under progress to determine the
long-term protection against dengue in vaccinated individuals. There
are no licensed therapeutics and the correlates of protection are also
not known. As there are four serotypes of dengue virus, the problem
of antibodies against one serotype enhancing subsequent infection
with a different serotype (antibody-dependent enhancement) is a
major contributor to disease severity. Since most primary dengue
infections are asymptomatic, the population at risk for severe
infections upon subsequent exposure to a different serotype increases
manifold. Therefore, characterizing the immune responses in both
primary and secondary infections and identifying correlates of severe
disease and protection in dengue-infected patients is likely to aid
both vaccine and therapeutics development.
We initiated a study to establish pediatric dengue cohort in New
Delhi and enrolled 97 patients over three years with varying disease
severities which were classified based on WHO guidelines. We
estimated the presence of virus in the blood (viremia) and quantified
the inflammatory mediators in the plasma of these patients both at
the time of admission and at discharge from the hospital. Furthermore,
we identified the cell types positive for dengue virus in peripheral
blood mononuclear cells. Using a multivariate analysis we identified
factors that correlate with severe disease and clinical recovery.
Although severe dengue disease was observed in secondary
infections, as expected, over 30% of the primary infections also had
severe disease, suggesting that factors other than pre-existing
antibodies may contribute to disease severity. Blood viremia had no
association with disease severity but high viremia correlated with
prolonged thrombocytopenia (low platelet counts) and delayed
recovery from severe disease. Severe dengue cases had low Th1
cytokines and a concurrent increase in the inflammatory mediators
such as IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10. A transient increase in CD14+CD16+
intermediate monocytes was observed early in infection. Sorting of
monocytes from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of dengue
patients revealed that it is the CD14+ cells, but not the CD16+ or the
T or B cells, that were infected with dengue virus and were major
producers of IL-10. Using the Boruta algorithm, reduced interferon-α
levels and enhanced pro-inflammatory cytokines were identified as
some of the distinctive markers of severe dengue. Furthermore, the
reduction in the levels of IL-8 and IL-10 were identified as the most
significant markers of clinical recovery from severe disease. Our
results provide further insights into the immune response of children to
primary and secondary dengue infection and help us to understand
the complex interplay between the intrinsic factors in dengue
pathogenesis.
INDIA ALLIANCE
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Bridging India’s mental health treatment gap Intermediate Fellow, Dr Pallab Maulik
George Institute for Global Health India
Immune Response to Dengue Virus Infection in Pediatric Patients in New Delhi, India-Association of Viremia, Inflammatory Mediators and Monocytes with Disease Severity. Mohit Singla , Meenakshi Kar, Tavpritesh Sethi, Sushil K. Kabra, Rakesh Lodha, Anmol Chandele, Guruprasad R. Medigeshi. PLoS neglected tropical diseases (2016).
12.
The global burden of mental disorders and treatment gap is large, especially in countries
like India due to poor awareness about mental health and few available mental health
professionals for providing care. The recently published BBC story narrates the strategy
undertaken by George Institute for Global Health India, which aims to narrow this gap by
enabling the available primary-care workforce through provision of affordable, accessible
and high-quality electronic clinical decision support.
Watch the BBC story here or read it online
Read Pallab’s article on m-health that was featured in the first issue of our newsletter here
Image above : Double-stranded RNA in dengue virus infected cells. Human hepatoma-7 cells were infected with 1 plaque forming unit/cell of dengue virus-2. Cells were fixed and stained 24 hours post-infection using antibodies that recognise dsRNA (red) which are intermediates in viral replication. Nuclei is stained with DAPI (4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) (blue). Dengue infected cells are identified by the presence of dsRNA staining.
Novel insights into immune response of children to dengue infections Imbalance in inflammatory response, a major determinant of disease severity
Dr Guruprasad R. Medigeshi, Intermediate Fellow,
Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad
INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOW IN SPOTLIGHT
DR SUPRIYA RAY Intermediate Fellow, Allahabad University
Dr Supriya Ray is a Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellow based at Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (CBCS), University of Allahabad. His research group at CBCS examines the neural mechanisms of decision making for coordinated eye-hand movements using three complementary techniques: human psychophysics, primate electrophysiology and computational modeling.
13.
What are you working on? and what impact do you hope it will
have?
Most of our daily activities involve visually guided movements, we
see something and then act on it. Usually saccadic eye movement,
which rapidly orients gaze to an object of interest, precedes limb
movement. Visual perception and attention are closely linked to eye
movement. Have you ever seen your own eye movement in mirror?
We simply cannot, because our perceptual ability is suppressed
around the time of saccade. More interestingly, attention shifts
covertly to the future location of gaze, which means, the mind’s eye
moves before physical eye movement. However, sometimes a
situation may also arise when you must inhibit your intended or
planned eye movement – you may not want to put your life at risk
by taking eyes off the road while driving, or making an eye contact
with your neighbor’s aggressive canine who has mistaken you as an
intruder, or when you are watching news on television and your
spouse is excited to tell you about upcoming vacation plan.
Currently we are investigating how perception and
attention influence control of eye movement. We
manipulate detectability of a stop-signal (similar to a red light in a
traffic signal) that appears unexpectedly, and examine the ability
of human participants to inhibit their impending eye movements in
response to that signal. Our data suggests that the detection of the
stop-signal was critical to cancel saccadic eye-movement but has no
effect on saccadic reaction time. We further manipulated spatial
orientation of attention. Participants selected a peripheral target
by summoning attention either around the center of the screen, or at
the peripheral location of the target. A central visual stop-signal, as
mentioned above, appeared infrequently in both cases requiring
cancellation of impending saccade. Deployment of attention on the
peripheral target relatively expedited saccade but did not affect
stopping performance, suggesting divided attention between the
saccade-goal and stop-signal.
These findings cannot be accounted for by the classical theory of
inhibitory control that assumes a pair of competing mental
processes, one that evolves to generate a saccade, and the other
that evolves to stop the saccade – whomsoever wins the race, that
behaviour is observed. The reason is that the model largely ignores
role of cognition, especially perception and attention, in inhibition
of action. We are planning to test some of these ideas in
coordinated eye-hand movements as well. In future, we will record
EEG activity from human participants and action potentials from
monkeys to understand underlying mechanisms and interplay
between perception, attention and action in the network between
frontal and parietal areas of the brain. We hope that our study will
improve our understanding of the brain functions and will also help
us to explain why attention deficit people sometimes exhibit
impulsive behaviour.
What role can scientists play in the society?
Most definitely, the first and foremost responsibility of
a scientist is to accrue and propagate quality
scientific knowledge, and to ensure that the benefit
of their research reaches the common people. By
‘quality’ I mean novel, in-depth and robust. The second most
important duty of scientists, I think, is to eradicate superstition and
misinformation from society.
Primate lab under construction at Allahabad University
To this end we must involve ourselves in outreach programs – for
example organise scientific exhibitions, science quiz, debates, lab
tours etc – at the grass root level of our education system. We
should also encourage bright youngsters to consider research as a
career option. Further, I believe, scientists in India have much bigger
role than just doing research in isolation and presenting their
findings in front of only a handful of qualified people who
understand their jargon. We have obligation not only to guide our
students, but the nation as well, by helping government to make
policies that are rational and have strong scientific foundation.
How has Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance funding helped you
and your research?
I was extremely fortunate to receive funding from Wellcome Trust /
DBT India Alliance. When I was planning to relocate to India from
USA, my primary concern was how would I buy instruments for my
lab, who would support recurring expenses? Wellcome Trust / DBT
India Alliance is known for its generosity; however, the best part of
this grant is its flexibility – their fellows are free to plan budget that
suits the Fellow’s requirement. This grant has also helped me to get
financial support from my university to build a primate research
facility, which is currently under construction. Wellcome Trust / DBT
India Alliance always insists on quality of research, their periodic
assessment has helped me to refine thoughts and techniques.
What keeps you going everyday?
Actually quite a few things, for example, my never ending urge to
know the brain slightly better than before, frequent questions by a
bunch of smart students- their excitement to show me what new they
have found in their data., and currently, setting up electrophysiology
labs for human and non-human primates. I always feel that I still
have a lot of things to do and the clock is ticking very fast. I work
hard to live up to the expectations of my family, friends and of
course my funding organisations.
Eye tracking lab, Allahabad University
14.
POSTDOC POSITION AVAILABLE AT DR RAY’S
RESEARCH GROUP
Centre for Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences
(CBCS), University of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellow
Position of a Postdoctoral Fellow is open in a project
funded by The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.
Applications are invited from candidates who have
finished their Ph.D in Neuroscience/ Physics/ Mathematics/
Computer Science/ Engineering/ Medicine/ Applied
Physics/ Systems Biology / Cognitive Science or related
fields from a reputed institute, with good understanding
of brain and cognition.
Candidates with experience in electrophysiology or
computational modelling will be given preference. An
ideal candidate should have at least one publication in a
high-impact international peer reviewed journal (or h-
index at least 3). Sound knowledge in Statistics, and
experience in programming using C / C++ / Matlab is
expected. Fellowship will be as per directives by The
Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance.
Interested candidate may apply with their CV, a
statement of purpose, reprint(s) of selected paper(s),
and contact details of two referees.
Contact: Dr. Supriya Ray, [email protected]
Lab website : http://facweb.cbcs.ac.in/supriya-ray
INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOW
DR SUPRIYO RAY
DATA SCIENCE FOR MEDICINE: UNICORNS AND WORKHORSES
Dr Tavpritesh Sethi (Early Career Fellow) & Dr Rakesh Lodha
Medicine is undergoing a global change catalyzed by the Big Data
revolution. However, while Big Data focuses mostly on technology, it
is the “science of data” which could be the key enabling factor.
Generating knowledge from data is more challenging than
capturing the data itself- a sobering lesson learnt from the Human
Genome Project and the subsequent “omics” revolution. Clinical
medicine too is adopting “Data science for Medicine” to distil
knowledge out of medical Big data. Since the disciplines are still in
its infancy, Data Science is often confused with statistics and
defining features of Big data are evolving. While traditional data
resides in neatly organised tables, Big data starts greedily with
whatever can be reliably captured and ranges from numbers to text
and even images. If traditional data are likened to a
library’s catalogue, Big data would be Einstein’s
messy desk and Data science would be Einstein’s
brain that creates Value out of the mess. In contrast,
most statistical analysis generates value upon the neat data (Figure
1 a). Thus, the “dirty nature” of Big data has led to Veracity being
an important component in its 4V’s definition, Volume, Velocity,
Variety and Veracity. Some definitions have already incorporated
Value as the fifth V. We believe that Value and Veracity are the
most important components to be addressed for the successful
implementation of programs on Data science for medicine and that
India is a unique crucible for precipitating this new discipline with its
enormous patient numbers and diversity.
The core-skillset of a Data scientist lies at the intersection of domain
expertise, quantitative skills and hacking (used in the original sense
of the word, which means the skills to code as per needs). The
obvious question that arises is whether a medical data scientist is a
mythical Unicorn trained at the interface of Medicine, Mathematics
and Computer-programming? Our answer is an emphatic “No”.
Many medical graduates have the right quantitative temperament
developed over years of dealing with complexity of human health.
Visionary institutes around the world are launching the discipline of
Data science for Biomedicine to encourage cross-talk between the
two disciplines. Supported by the Wellcome Trust/DBT India
Alliance, we have started a Data science initiative, Sepsis Advanced
Forecasting Engine for Intensive Care Units (SAFE-ICU) to create
models capable of forecasting sepsis in sick children and neonates
admitted to the ICUs at the Department of Pediatrics, All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (Figure 1.b). SAFE-ICU is being
developed within the clinical environment to incorporate clinical
domain expertise into the machine learning and artificial
intelligence models.
SAFE-ICU is being implemented in graded steps,
starting with addressing of killer conditions such as
sepsis in pediatric ICUs (PICUs). Sepsis is a devastating
disease and delay in the recognition of sepsis increases the
mortality-rate, which is as high as 50% in India. Since the data
generated in the ICUs are often lost because of lack of
computational and informatics support, we proposed to derive a
composite index from Big data to forecast sepsis and its impending
complications. Data science tools such as Artificial intelligence and
machine learning algorithms would be implemented to achieve these
objectives. In addition, through SAFE-ICU we also aim to improve
the precision of diagnosis by looking for data-driven sub-
phenotypes and assess the Value of the forecasting models through
a Pilot Trial. This bridging of clinical domain expertise and Data
science is guided by the principles of Capture reliably, Approach
systemically, Phenotype deeply and Enable decisions.
Capture reliably
Unlike standard data, which can be manually inspected for errors
and loss of fidelity, the Volume and Velocity of Big data often
makes this infeasible. Therefore, additional layers of data-checking
mechanisms are needed to ensure its reliability. Our data-module
of SAFE-ICU captures data every 1-second on physiological
variables such as heart rate, respiration rate, oxygen saturation,
blood pressure, end tidal CO2 etc. from each bed and we have
implemented various automated .processes to check for data
quality. Our in-house computational codes, written using open-
source programming tools perform automated parsing, cleaning
and plotting of data every day (Figure 1 c, d). We have also
incorporated for checks related with physical events, such as loose
cables, by writing programs that send a message on a mobile
device every time a data connection is stopped or restarted (Figure
1 c).
Approach systemically
Human body and cellular physiology are complex inter-connected
systems. Diseases and symptoms tend to cluster together. As in social
networks, these communities can be discovered using graph theory
and networks analysis. In social networks, friendships and
community affiliations can change over time. In a similar manner,
disease associations may evolve and form trajectories mapped in
time. Visualization of these changes can provide novel insights into
the evolution of the system. In a recently published work (Lancet
Global Health, 2015), we demonstrated the utility of such
algorithms to a unique patient resource generated by Chest
Research Foundation (CRF), Pune.
15.
16.
Data science for Medicine: Unicorns and Workhorses By Dr Tavpritesh Sethi & Dr Rakesh Sodha
Figure 1, a. Data science is not statistics re-invented but an end-to-end approach to generate knowledge from large, growing, heterogeneous and dirty data, b. Our SAFE-ICU supported by India Alliance at AIIMS is a quintessential Data science initiative to enable better critical care, c. Our Big data pipelines make use of open source hardware and software platforms for automated checks sent to a mobile device and, d. Automated daily plotting and summary statistics are generated for data quality.
Phenotype deeply
Genomics has shown that seemingly simple traits such as height,
long known to be genetically influenced, are complex traits, which
are very difficult to predict. Similarly, the occurrence and trajectory
of diseases are widely heterogeneous and difficult to predict at the
individual level. However, Data-science provides a hope by
churning through millions of patients’ records across thousands of
Figure 2. Visualizing complex data to discover patterns is a key feature of Data-science. The alluvial plot visualization above was created on 2,04,912 patients data collected on a single day all across India as a part of POSEIDON study conducted by Chest Research Foundation, Pune. We confirmed existing medical rhetoric through the visualization of merging bands and also proposed novel hypothesis which are being tested.
CRF collected disease data on 2,04,912 patients
all across India on a single day and called the
study POSEIDON (Prevalence of Symptoms on a
singlE Indian Healthcare Day on a Nationwide scale,
Figure 2). Diseases, which have more “friends”,
automatically get mapped to thick lines that settle
down in the alluvial plot. This visualization
confirmed medical rhetoric, such as differential co-
evolution of heart-disease with diabetes and of
reproductive anemia in females in rural versus
urban settings in India. The correlation can be seen
in Figure 2 captured by the merging of bands
labeled Female Genital and Anemia in the
reproductive age group and their separation
thereafter. This example illustrates the key role of
Visualization in Data science. Unlike traditional
statistics, Big data are often difficult to understand
through tables and summaries and require novel
visual techniques. These help the human brain to
organize complex information to generate testable
knowledge. SAFE-ICU would rely heavily on the
network of physiological markers to enable specific
alerts.
hours to provide plausible predictions through finding “similar” cases.
The mathematical quantification of similarity needs to be defined in
terms of detailed depth of information and in a wide set of variables.
SAFE-ICU is geared towards capture and analysis of dense data in
the form of patient vitals and text notes. Thousands of hours of
recordings could help us save more lives by making early predictions
and prescriptions using these heterogeneous data.
Enable decisions
SAFE-ICU has a primary focus of expediting clinical decision
making in sepsis, a trend the next-generation medicine is also
evolving towards. While Big data is defined by 4-V’s, next-
generation medicine is aimed towards 4-P’s, i.e., Preventive,
Personalised, Predictive and Participatory. Precision medicine drills
down a level deeper by using Data science to precisely define
the disease before treatment as many diseases can give rise to
overlapping symptoms. Thus, clinical decisions will increasingly
depend upon Big data, implying the need to move beyond p-
values and statistical associations. In March, 2016, the American
Statistical Association took a strong stand on the inappropriate
use of p-values in science, especially medicine. In this official
release, the association has expressed concern for the “non-
reproducibility”
issue in science and has strongly advised more rigorous
application of statistics and analysis. Many such rigorous models
are already in use in other disciplines such as weather
forecasting, economics, fraud detection etc. and can be adapted
to clinical and community health situations.
Challenges
Although promising, Data science for medicine is not expected to
be without challenges. Apart from the scientific challenge of
bridging expertise, one of the major challenges is the technical
harmonisation of data-standards across medical equipment and
healthcare software. Inter-operability of medical databases and
equipment standards would enable clinicians to access the digital
raw data that rightfully belongs to them and policy makers are
slowly enforcing this change. Community driven efforts such as R,
Python, Linux and forums such as Stack Overflow are
instrumental in driving Data science. With medical device and
software protocols becoming open, Data scientists and software
engineers would have to put efforts in writing open-source
pipelines thus making it into a community effort. In our project,
we have created a data-access and warehousing module for
SAFE-ICU for the existing monitoring system at PICU at AIIMS.
Another key challenge is to ensure reproducibility of results. Data
quality, parameter optimisation and preserving the fidelity of
information can be overwhelming. Therefore, reproducibility is
one of the prime directives in Data science and can be easily
achieved by documenting all the codes used for collecting and
analyzing data. This is facilitated by the most common
programming languages used for Data science, R and Python, by
providing options for knitting the steps of the code into
documents in the most common formats. Finally, the success of
these approaches will rely upon the translational value
generation for clinicians and public health researchers. Models
will have to pass through stringent processes similar to drug-
development to be utilizable in the real healthcare settings. This
is a lofty goal but one that can be achieved through common
scientific, technological and social endeavors.
Cover Image: Comparative thermal images for a child without
circulatory shock (above) and with shock (below). Gradient in skin
surface temperature from center to peripheries is clearly seen in
shock. Imaging was done using Seek Thermal camera, kindly
provided by Dr Richard Fletcher, MIT-D Lab, USA.
17.
Team: Tavpritesh Sethi1, Rakesh Lodha1, Aditya Nagori2, Anurag
Agrawal2, Vinod K. Paul1
1, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences,
New Delhi, India
2, CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge the Wellcome Trust/DBT
India Alliance for this supporting this initiative. We thank Prof Samir
K. Brahmachari (CSIR-IGIB, India), Prof Charles Auffray (EISBM,
France) for their mentorship, Dr. Nigam Shah (Stanford School of
Medicine, USA), and Mr. Gautam Morey (Sofomo Embedded
Solutions, Pune, India) for valuable discussions. We also
acknowledge the generous technical support provided by Mr. Burt
Wang, Mr. Suresh M. Babu, Ms Manju Goyal, Ms Apeksha Jain and
Mr Rameshwar Yadav from Mindray Support for patient monitors
installed at PICU/NICU, AIIMS, New Delhi.
Dr Tavpritesh Sethi is a Physician Data scientist and a Wellcome Trust/DBT India
Alliance Early Career Fellow (Clinical and Public Health Research Fellowship scheme)
based at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Dr Sethi obtained his
PhD at CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi, during which he
also received MIT-India Young Innovator Awards in 2013 for his methodology for
detecting early small airway disease using computational physiology. Click here to
find out more about Tavpritesh’s current work.
Data science for Medicine: Unicorns and Workhorses By Dr Tavpritesh Sethi & Dr Rakesh Sodha
INDIA ALLIANCE STAFF CORNER
DR BELA DESAI, Grants Adviser
Bela Desai joined the grants team in 2014 right after her return from the USA, where she did her Postdoc. When not busy advising Fellowship applicants or taking Science Communication workshops, Bela enjoys being a bookworm and tries to keep the writer in her alive.
What is your background? I have the wanderer's curse. I have lived in so many places that by now I can’t say that I belong to any one city in particular. I was born in Bombay but I have hardly lived there. I grew up in Sharjah, one of the Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (no street food like shawarmas!). When I was growing up Sharjah was a small town, where everyone knew everyone. My neighbours were Punjabi and the rest of the families in our locality were from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. My school friends were Keralites (so I picked up an appreciation for shark curry from there). After a brief sojourn in Baroda, Gujarat to do my MSc and getting married to a Bengali during my PhD in Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay, here I am in Delhi. There was a short interlude in San Diego but that was quite uneventful except for the coming of my firstborn and my discovery of sushi. Delhi is slowly but steadily growing on me! How has your India Alliance journey been so far? I have loved working in India Alliance. A congenial atmosphere in the office and being around people who are so dedicated to their jobs makes it a pleasure to come into work every day. I love that I am able to make a difference in the lives of scientists and help them to make this country a leader in scientific research. I have fond memories of the time when I started out and there was no Delhi office. This was a time when I had to spend the first 3 months of my job in Hyderabad - a city I had never been to before. At only 2 weeks in the city I had to find a house to rent! But somehow we managed it in the end. I loved the city as I have never loved a city before. I still hope that someday I will return to Hyderabad to live life as it should be - with mutual respect, cheap real estate and affable craziness (I still don’t get why the Hyderabadis go bonkers over that clock at the museum but it is heartening that a clock doing its clock-like duties should make an entire audience applaud!). During my time in India Alliance, I have learned that a good supervisor can make all the difference to the way you look at work. What was the last piece of research that excited you? It was exciting to read about the research of Kim Nader from McGill University which is currently making waves in the field of neuroscience. His work has shown that we can program our long term memory. Every time we remember a memory it is undergoing protein synthesis dependant storage. So by preventing a memory from being re-stored it is possible to erase a memory completely. He has used this to help patients of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). So a future shown in the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (where all the protagonists have to do to forget about their past painful relationships is to take a drug and "sleep it off") could actually come true! When not busy on the job, what do you enjoy doing? When I am not planning my next gastronomic adventure, I like to read and write about history. Not the larger history of nations and races drawn with broad brush strokes on a large canvas but history on a smaller scale - the squiggles by the side of the canvas; sort of like a microhistory (of buildings or localities). My interests in this subject
started during my time in South Bombay where every building has a peculiar history (a building that used to store ice is now a research institute!) Seeing the neo-Gothic architecture (Mumbai University, High Court and CST station) jostling next to the second largest block of Art Deco buildings in the world (topped by the triumvirate of the three grand Art Deco movie theatres that is Eros, Regal and Metro which are still functioning as movie theatres!) gives a history junkie a sky high literally. The other thing that drives my love of local history is my own personal history is linked with it. My grandfather worked in the textile mills of Girangoan, Mumbai. A whole community sprung up around these mill workers - a community where space was shared. My father grew up in a two room house in a chawl which we used to visit during vacations until it was demolished to build a skyscraper. With the mills now giving way to malls, this communal culture is fast disappearing. There were and still are many communities in Mumbai with their own distinct culture and traditions. It is this part that needs to be catalogued before it is swamped by greater pan-Indian forces. Whenever I have time, I write, expand and maintain articles (on Wikipedia) about the old buildings and culture of Maharashtra in general and Mumbai in particular. Who inspires you (living or dead)? For me, Robin Williams personifies all things funny. As a kid, I enjoyed the side splitting antics of the genie in the movie Aladdin, the kid-at-heart from Jumanji or the gender bending protagonist of Mrs Doubtfire. Any scene Robin Williams is in, he had the power to transform it into a laugh a second comedy. As I grew up I discovered his other movies on more serious topics like The Birdcage, Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poets Society. His improvisations on the show “Whose Line is it anyway?” are classics. It is even more poignant that throughout his life he suffered from depression, as geniuses are often prone to. In the end, it is his own depression that finally consumed him. But it is the lasting testimony of his life that a person with such deep personal issues could make so many people laugh. What book are you reading right now? I just finished reading Terry Pratchett’s “Small Gods”. It is, as most of Terry Pratchetts books are, a tongue in cheek account of the subject he is macerating. In “Small Gods”, Terry Pratchett takes on organized religion. Studded with meta-references, it is a romping rollicking account of a person in the fictional universe of Discworld who a God contacts to be a Prophet but really no one believes the God- least of all the chosen Prophet. It could be taken as a satire on or in praise of organized religion depending on which way you lean. I also enjoyed reading "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead. I picked this book from a flea shop with no expectations, that is, without reading any reviews on the internet and had no idea what I was in for. I finished it in one sitting and now it has become my favourite book. It aptly describes the small horrors of childhood and the meanness of schoolkids. But it is the fantastic twist in the end that takes the book to a whole new level.
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