My lab's 16th PhD thesis was submitted today by peerless Anuja Walimbe @anujawalimbe.bsky.social. Anuja utilized an array of molecular, cellular, and single-molecule biophysical approaches and delved deeper into the intriguing phase behavior of TDP-43 associated with ALS and frontotemporal dementia.

20 years ago (August 2006): During my postdoc @scripps.edu, I presented a poster on my ongoing/unpublished work at the @proteinsociety.bsky.social meeting in San Diego. The paper was published in @pnas.org in February 2007 (cited ~ 370). This was the first single-molecule FRET study of an IDP/prion.

Happy to share that the postdoctoral work of my former PhD student, Priyanka Dogra, has made it to the cover page of the latest issue of Molecular Cell. Congratulations, Priyanka, on your truly amazing work. www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

My seven-year term on the Editorial Advisory Panel of Essays in Biochemistry, a review journal of the Biochemical Society, London, UK @biochemsoc.bsky.social, is coming to a close. I'm also sharing a 2022 issue of Essays I edited. Thank you all at Essays! portlandpress.com/essaysbioche...

Fluorescence Friday sneak peek: A picosecond time-resolved confocal fluorescence image & decay profiles of nucleoli (granular component) in a live mammalian cell recorded on a time-resolved single-molecule confocal fluorescence microscope in our lab by @arpitasingh.bsky.social @roopsiek.bsky.social.

We welcome Apurva Mishra, who joined our lab as a postdoctoral fellow after completing her PhD with Prof. Pramit K. Chowdhury at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Apurva will delve deeper into biomolecular condensates using single-molecule FRET/FCS and other emerging tools.

This afternoon, I arrived in Imphal to speak at a conference at Manipur University. Breathtaking view of the snow-capped Himalayas from the aircraft while flying from Chandigarh —》Delhi —》Imphal (7-10x zoom).

Three of my students (two former PhD students, Shruti Arya and Ashish Joshi @ashishjoshi.bsky.social, and a current PhD student, Anuja Walimbe @anujawalimbe.bsky.social are currently attending the Biophysical Society meeting in San Francisco @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social.

What an incredible day for my lab! The latest work from the lab of my first PhD student, Neha Jain, now an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, has just been published in PNAS @pnas.org. Congratulations to Neha and your amazing team! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Happy #FluorescenceFriday. My lab is presenting a sneak peek of cancer-related transcription condensates in the nucleus of two human cell lines expressing a transcription factor fused with enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein. Prepared & imaged by my postdoc, Dr. Arpita Singh @arpitasingh.bsky.social.

It was wonderful to visit the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan, to deliver a biology colloquium. I had a great interaction with the students & faculty members and learned about the amazing science being done at BITS Pilani. Thank you, Biological Sciences at BITS.

As part of our biophysics lab class, yesterday before experiments, I taught FRET (Förster resonance energy transfer). Shown here are two seminal papers: Theodor Förster (1946) & Stryer & Haugland (1967). My colleague, Amar Deep, took photos of me describing the 'kappa square' problem in FRET.

Happy #FluorescenceFriday. My lab is featuring fluorescence microscopy images of C. elegans worms expressing a stress granule-forming protein fused to RFP (Red Fluorescent Protein).🪱🔬 Left: A single worm. Right: An egg containing oxidative stress-induced granules in the embryo.

To all our dear friends, colleagues, students, staff, collaborators, supporters, well-wishers, and academic associates: Wish you and your family a very happy, prosperous, productive, peaceful, joyous, and healthy New Year 2026. - The Mukhopadhyay Lab

It was wonderful to speak at the polypeptide folding & assembly symposium at the Pacifichem 2025 conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. Thanks to all the attendees for your kind words & for asking brilliant questions. It was nice to get an invitation to visit Seoul, South Korea, next year. Mahalo, Hawaii!

Arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii two days ago and greatly enjoying the Pacifichem 2025 conference at this stunning location. If you're attending Pacifichem, you're welcome to attend my talk tomorrow, Dec 17 (Wed) at 1:40 PM in Ilima Room at Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Waikiki Beach, Honolulu. See you!

Congratulations to my PhD student, Anuja Walimbe @anujawalimbe.bsky.social, on receiving the Biophysical Society Travel Award to attend @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social meeting in San Francisco, California, in February 2026. She will present her exciting research on TDP-43, which is associated with ALS.

It was wonderful to host Shiv Grewal @grewalsh.bsky.social from NIH earlier this week. Shiv gave a beautiful talk on heterochromatin propagation and the epigenetic landscape. We had a stimulating discussion after his lecture. It was also great to have him visit my single-molecule biophysics lab.

Sonia Longhi @sonia-longhi.bsky.social from @cnrs.fr Marseille visited my lab at IISER Mohali as part of our Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (IFCPAR/CEFIPRA) project. We had great scientific discussions and interactions with my students and colleagues.

It was a great honor to speak and chair a session in Prion 2025 held in Buzios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I got great feedback on our prion phase separation work and learned a lot about biology, etiology, early diagnosis, and therapeutic strategies for fatal prion diseases (CJD/GSS/FFI). Goodbye, Rio!

What a terrific recognition of our research field! Dirk Görlich (Max Planck Institute Göttingen) and Steven McKnight (UT Southwestern) received the Lasker Award for their work on low-complexity domains and their phase separation. Read the perspective in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Last week, I started teaching the freshman biology class (BIO 101), which I'm very excited about. I'm sharing one of my introductory slides on the three pillars of modern biology - evolution, genetics and molecular nature of genetic material. Looking forward to teaching the first-year biology class!

Happy to share our community note published in Nature Communications @natcomms.nature.com. In this 14-page article (34 authors from 9 countries), we discuss current practices in phase separation. We hope it will be useful to the biomolecular condensate community. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Breathtaking view of the Shivalik range of the Himalayas from the balcony of our apartment on the 7th floor at IISER Mohali: at 5:30 pm and 7 pm.

Happy to share a sneak peek of our foray into plant proteins: A fluorescence image of phase-separated condensates of an intrinsically disordered protein from Arabidopsis (prepared & imaged by my PhD students Snehasis Sarkar & Muskan Koundal). I'll share more details later. Happy Fluorescence Friday!

Yesterday, I had a great visit/seminar/discussion at the University of Lorraine, Metz, then arrived in Paris in the evening & had a breathtaking view of Paris from Eiffel Tower. Now at Paris CDG airport & will fly to Delhi. Had a wonderful time in France. Au revoir Paris/France/my friends in France!

Had an amazing 2-day stay in Montpellier & gave 2 seminars at IBMM, Université de Montpellier & CBS (Centre de Biologie Structurale), CNRS. Thanks to my amazing hosts, Joseph Chamieh (IBMM) & Emmanuel Margeat (CBS). I just arrived in Paris and on my way to Metz to visit the Université de Lorraine.

Goodbye, Marseille! Had an exciting scientific visit & enjoyed breathtaking views of the Mediterranean Sea! Now on the train to Montpellier to visit/speak at the Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron (IBMM) CNRS, Université de Montpellier in the next 4 hours. See you all at IBMM, CNRS Montpellier!

Yesterday, I taught biological phase separation at CNRS Marseille (photo credit: my former student, Harshita). Had an amazing lunch with students/postdocs of my host, Sonia Longhi. Had a wonderful dinner with Harshita near Marseille Port. Looking forward to visiting Nice & Cannes during the weekend.

Had busy last two days - gave a seminar at CNRS Marseille (photo credit: Harshita) & had discussions with scientists. Had a quick visit to Prado Beach & an amazing dinner at my host's (Sonia Longhi) beautiful house near Cassis (overlooking the Mediterranean Sea). Today, I'll teach phase separation.