India Alliance Newsletter I Issue 9 I May 2016

News & Views Issue 9 May 2016

INDIA ALLIANCE

EDITORIAL

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 public.engagement@wellcomedbt.org 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

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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

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INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS EARLY CAREER FELLOWSHIPS Preliminary Application Deadline: 6 June 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.

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

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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-careerfellowships for further information on eligibility, remit, provisions, and the application process. Queries may be addressed to info@wellcomedbt.org

Remit: Full spectrum of biomedical science from fundamental molecular and cellular studies through Clinical and Public Health research** Interdisciplinary projects are welcome

**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-healthresearch-fellowships

Provisions: The upper limit for an award is INR 1.7 Crores. The 5-year Fellowship typically provides: • Competitive personal support • Generous research funds

RECENTLY RECOMMENDED AWARDEES

EARLY CAREER FELLOWSHIPS 2016 * indicates newly awarded host institute

Dr Debojyoti Chakraborty, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi

Dr Sveta Chakrabarti, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore Dr Aditi Maulik, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore Dr Mohammad Tauqeer Alam, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi*, New Delhi

Dr Nisha N K, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram

Dr Gajinder Pal Singh, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi

Dr Preethi Badrinarayan, Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh

Ms Paulomi Sanghavi, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai

Dr Chitra P, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore

Dr Arunabha Chakrabarti, Tata Translational Cancer Research Centre, Kolkata

Dr Anchal Chandra, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore

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CLINICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH

INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOWS

Bringing "OneHealth" to rabies research in India: Integrating animal ecology, disease ecology and human health

Yoga and Schizophrenia – a comprehensive assessment of neuroplasticity

Abi. T Vanak

Dr Shivarama Varambally Clinical and Public Health Research Intermediate Fellow 2015 National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore Website

Dr Clinical and Public Health Research Intermediate Fellow 2015 Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore Website

I am an ecologist with broad interests in animal movement ecology, disease ecology, savanna ecosystems and wildlife in humandominated 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 postdoc 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.

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.

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).

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 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

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.

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.

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

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.

project I plan to examine rabies in India under the “OneHealth” framework by combining ecology, epidemiology and human health.

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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/

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INDIA ALLIANCE

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT CORNER THE ARTWORK 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.

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?

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.

Photo credits: Vivek Muthuramalingam, Tyska Samborska

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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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 selfregulation 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’.

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.

Prof Shankar Subramaniam

Prof Shyni Varghese

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Prof Noel J Buckley

Prof Ranajit Chakraborty

Prof Raimond L Winslow

Prof Francois Guillemot

Prof Douglas Young

Dr Shahid Jameel

INDIA ALLIANCE

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION WORKSHOPS

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.

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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

One-day SciComm101 workshop National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, 4 May 2016 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/sciencecommunication-workshop for more information on these workshops and for requesting one at your institution.

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.

• 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

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 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

Session 1: Scientific Writing (moderated by WT/DBT Alliance) Topics to be covered:

If you would like to request this workshop at a conference you are organising please write to workshops@wellcomedbt.org with the expression of interest.

• Ethics in research • Presentation skills

Upcoming Workshops

Two-day SciComm workshop 26-27 September 2016, Hyderabad Application form will be available online at www.wellcomdbt.org on 23 May

One-day SciComm and Career workshop 18 October 2016 XXXIV Annual Meeting of Indian Academy of Neurosciences NBRC, Manesar

For more details visit "SciComm Workshop" under "Quick Links" on our website 10.

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 CibaGeigy 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

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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 gendersensitive. There is unfortunately no fast, fix it solution. It needs a multipronged 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.

INDIA ALLIANCE

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 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 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-Îą 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.

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).

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.

Bridging India’s mental health treatment gap Intermediate Fellow, Dr Pallab Maulik George Institute for Global Health India 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

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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.

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.

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

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.

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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

INDIA ALLIANCE FELLOW

DR SUPRIYO RAY

Eye tracking lab, 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.

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 hindex 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.

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.

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Contact: Dr. Supriya Ray, sray@cbcs.ac.in Lab website : http://facweb.cbcs.ac.in/supriya-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

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 subphenotypes 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.

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.

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 opensource 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).

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.

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.

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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.

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 coevolution 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.

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.

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

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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.

Data science for Medicine: Unicorns and Workhorses

By Dr Tavpritesh Sethi & Dr Rakesh Sodha

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, nextgeneration 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 pvalues 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 “nonreproducibility” 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 drugdevelopment 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.

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.

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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

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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-atheart 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.

Please send your feedback, suggestions and contributions to public.engagement@wellcomedbt.org Follow us on

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