Utkarsha A Singh, PhD

Project Biology • 12th February 2021

How our brain responds to storytelling?

In the early 1960s, Dr. Harry Angelman, a British pediatrician, attended to three young patients at the Warrington group of hospitals. These children were strangers to one another, being handicapped and having multiple disabilities as if presenting different illnesses.

Yet something similar about the three children struck the experienced eye of Dr. Angelman, something he could not put into words. But the lack of diagnostic methods prevented Dr. Angelman from talking about these cases to the med

Research Matters • 4th January 2021

Examining the impact of natural gas use on Indian economy and environment

With the population growing by about 1% each year, the demand for fuels like oil, natural gas and coal is also ever-increasing in India. Entire economies survive on these non-renewable sources of energy. But what would happen to power and fertiliser industries, which solely rely on these fuels, as Indian natural gas reserves are used up? In a new study, researchers have tried to understand the consumption and production trends of natural gas in India and the effect of depletion of domestically-p

Research Matters • 1st December 2020

New research illuminates the path to ultrasensitive biosensors

Like a magnet that helps in searching for a needle in a haystack, biologists use biosensors to detect minute concentrations of a specific molecule in a solution containing different molecules. These sensors contain an array of specially designed molecules called receptors that can bind to selected molecules. Some applications such as measuring trace quantities of DNA having a small mutation in a pool of other genes require highly sensitive biosensors.

In a new study, researchers from the Indian

Research Matters • 20th November 2020

Halting the growth of harmful bacteria through specially-designed sugars

Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, antibiotics have been used to subdue bacterial infections. However, the rampant use of antibiotics has made some species of bacteria immune to their effects. Novel antibiotic strategies are needed to fight the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In a recent study, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) and Bowdoin College, Maine, USA, present a new method to target disease-causing bacteria by introducing

12th October 2020

Being selfish might be good for society.

Me, myself and I

Have just one point of view

We're convinced

There's no one else…

A group six of friends decide to start a saving scheme where each person will donate a sum of money (depending upon their own free will) to a common bank account. After receiving interest on the total sum, the money shall be withdrawn and equally distributed among all the friends.

This is an example of the public goods game, a strategic game where although nobody loses some individuals may be better off than o

12th October 2020

A train of thoughts needs a well-orchestrated railway system to run

Networks in the brain resemble the London underground, filled with interconnected circuits. In the brain, trains are replaced by electrical signals, tracks by neurons, and stations by synapses. Is it not remarkable that the term “train of thoughts” was introduced as early as in 1651 by Thomas Hobbes in his

This plasticity of synapses - termed long term potentiation (LTP) - is achieved by time-synchronized activity between a specific presynaptic and a specific postsynaptic neuron - a process cal

12th October 2020

The reward system beyond dopamine: DARPP-32 the master regulator.

Should I open the fridge and steal the pastry when my mother is asleep? What if she wakes up? The first act will result in a positive outcome or a reward where I will be enjoying the pastry. The second will definitely produce a negative outcome or punishment where I might end up cleaning the dishes. Reward and punishment are the strongest learning tools of nature. In our study, published in Brain Structure and Function in 2019, we locate brain cells or neurons that help in reward processing ther

Research Matters • 9th October 2020

How do Indian farmers adapt to climate change amid socio-economic hurdles?

Wavering weather and unpredictable monsoons due to climate change in the last few decades have destabilised Indian agriculture and put our food security at risk. Although policies that cater to sustainable development have been introduced, only time will show their impact. In the meantime, farmers will have to find ways to cope with the temperamental monsoons to reduce crop failure, while also facing other challenges including poverty, malnutrition, debt and illiteracy.

In a new study, research

Research Matters • 13th July 2020

To witness a change in rural India, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana needs a revamp

According to the 2011 Census, around 78% of rural and 14% of the urban households in India used conventional solid fuels like wood, dry grass, and cow dung cakes to cook. The harmful pollutants emitted by burning these fuels affected women and children severely, resulting in respiratory illnesses. Hence in 2016, the government introduced the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY or the Ujjwala scheme) to transform the use of cooking energy by distributing LPG connections either free of cost or at

Research Matters • 10th June 2020

Science shows there’s more to a heartfelt conversation than just words

Two words—boisterous and chatty—pretty much describe a typical conversation among friends. Every word uttered is not just a word that makes up the sentence; an array of emotions are conveyed through them. When we are upbeat and joyful, we tend to speak faster and in a higher pitch, while sadness slows us down and lowers our tones. We also talk differently to our friends, colleagues, and strangers. Are these observations anecdotal, or is there science behind our vibrant speech pattern?

In a rece

Research Matters • 28th May 2020

Lifting the fog over dementia diagnosis in India

India is ageing. Approximately 104 million Indians are above sixty and vulnerable to cognitive disorders affecting memory, such as dementia. Despite this impending future, we haven't been able to assess the current prevalence of such illnesses in the country. It is partly due to the geographical and cultural vastness of India, and the barriers of language and ethics prohibit the use of tests used in western countries. Now, a new study is trying to close this gap by introducing a psychological te

Research Matters • 18th March 2020

On a search for tough trees for rough Indian roads

Vehicular exhaust is a significant cause of air pollution in India, resulting in the rise of many fatal respiratory illnesses. With 249 million registered vehicles that contribute to growing levels of air pollution, India faces a hazy future. A solution to this problem seems to be ‘urban greening’ or planned plantation of trees within cities, as evidenced by a study of 55 cities in the United States, which helped remove 7 lakh metric tonnes of air pollutants annually.

Urban greening could invol

Research Matters • 11th March 2020

Mitochondria kill themselves to protect neurons from an early death

Voluntary movements, like lifting your hand to wave, are executed through precise coordination between different brain areas. Sometimes, due to the loss of neurons in the brain, some individuals cannot coordinate such voluntary movements and are said to be suffering from a condition called ataxia. A type of ataxia, known as the spinocerebellar ataxia, involves the loss of neurons from the spinal cord and cerebellum. These brain areas are responsible for controlling movement and balance. Caused b

Research Matters • 20th January 2020

Study cautions about the use of designer receptors to control the brain

A small depression in the football field, invisible to the eye due to levelled grass, may have given you a foot twist twice. The third time, however, you evade it like a charm because your brain has been constructing a map of the field and alerts you about the danger. Tiny cells called neurons, with their long tails and fibrous fingers, link together to form pathways within the brain that help you learn about your surroundings. However, it is difficult to pick out a single pathway to understand

Research Matters • 23rd December 2019

Is the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana brightening lives in rural Karnataka?

As a girl who often visited my grandparent’s village in the foothills of the Shivaliks, I recollect the morning trips we would take to gather twigs, dry grass, cow dung cakes and wood, to be used as fuel for the chulha or the stove. During most of the day, the women of the house sat cooking and coughing their lungs out in a murky stifling kitchen. Statistics show that such smoke-filled kitchens took the lives of 1.2 lakh people in 2015.

The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY), introduced in 201

Research Matters • 10th December 2019

IISc scientists show how reading changes the way we see words

We all remember learning to read—at first, we were taught to read each letter or sound at a time laboriously. Eventually, we picked up reading entire words and sentences effortlessly. But, it is not yet clear as to what changes in our brain when we learn to read.

In a recent study, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, have identified these changes in the brain changes that help in visually processing the words and helps us to read efficiently. The study was published in th

Research Matters • 4th November 2019

Two-decade-long study links lack of vitamin B3 to schizophrenia among Indians

Schizophrenia is used to describe a set of conditions that represent a fragmented psyche. People with schizophrenia often hear strange voices or see unreal visions. They may even start believing these hallucinations and have trouble expressing their emotions or rational thought in real-life situations. Schizophrenia manifests in early adulthood and may persist throughout the lifetime of an individual. The disease affects 23 million people worldwide and may double the risk of premature mortality.

Research Matters • 21st September 2019

The 'feeling' gut: Emerging role of gut microbes in mental health

Our gastrointestinal tract is teeming with a variety of microorganisms. The genes of all these microorganisms are collectively called the gut microbiome. Our unicellular gut tenants participate in our lives by being an integral part of the gut-brain axis—a two-way communication system between the gut and the brain.

We get our microbes from our mothers during childbirth and also through breastmilk. The method of childbirth determines the species of bacteria that will colonise the gut first. Thes

10th September 2019

When the Servant becomes the Master: Role of Astrocytes in synaptic maturation.

What is synaptic maturation? How do astrocytes help?

AMPA glutamate receptors (AMPARs)- a major excitatory receptor in the central nervous system-mature from calcium-permeable state to an impermeable state as more neuronal contacts get defined. This switch requires the GluA2 subunit of AMPARs to be recruited at the synapses.

To prove that astrocytes are important for engaging the GluA2 subunit at the synapse the researchers cultured retinal ganglion cells alone and also with astrocytes. They f

14th August 2019

Perineuronal nets- the batons for neural symphony?

We are born with brains that are naïve to the outer world, thus after birth connections in our brain continue to tune in with the stimuli from the external environment. This time period, marked by enhanced plasticity in the brain, is termed as the critical period (1) and it grants better learning abilities to the brain. However, once the critical period is over, the neural connectivity tends to move from plastic to a more stable structure.

The closure of the critical period is marked by the dev