Joined February 2024
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Glad to have been the project lead on putting together this report, which gave me the feel of how to look at country wide data and tell a compelling story with a cascading impact.
Thanks to the @Sci_Rio team, especially @ChampakSuchitha and @smarter_INDIANS for closing this 🎉
Dedicated the #UMMID (Unique Methods of Management of Inherited Disorders) Programme for Rare Genetic Disorders/ Diseases to the Nation. Possibly the first of it's kind, the programme has been designed by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology.
My Address Takeaways:
"India is steadily entering an era where healthcare, diagnosis and treatment will increasingly become genome-based, precision-driven and individualized according to the genetic profile of every patient.
Inherited Rare Genetic Disorders or Diseases remained neglected for decades because diagnosis itself was difficult, treatment inaccessible and medicines either unavailable or prohibitively expensive, making it essential to build a coordinated national mechanism to make diagnosis and management feasible, affordable and accessible for all families.
Rare Genetic Disorders represent a silent but deeply challenging public health burden, where families often spend years moving from one hospital to another in search of diagnosis and treatment. Despite affecting comparatively smaller populations, these disorders impose enormous emotional, social and financial hardship on affected families.
UMMID is a major step towards mitigation of the ordeal of families affected by Rare Genetic Disorders , and in general also towards the future of precision medicine in India, the Minister said the initiative would also prepare the country’s healthcare ecosystem for the next generation of gene and genome-based medical care".
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
Happy to share that I have joined @chemeng_iiserb @iiserbhopal as an Assistant Professor. Grateful to Dr. Paramita Das & @iiserbhopal admin team for a smooth onboarding. Thankful to my mentors @Maji_TK and Prof. Ajayan for their guidance & support. Excited for this new chapter.
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The Normal Heart is a heart wrenching movie on the emergence of AIDS, the sufferings of the gay community and the fight of a polio-immobilised medical doctor and researcher Dr. Linda Laubenstein.
Worth a watch for pride month. #LoveIsLove🏳️🌈
youtu.be/jlH1QtFuDGk?si=1ewB…
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
Yes, it is important to talk about challenges, biases, and lack of support systems.
But it is also important to talk about individuals who enabled, systems that worked, and opportunities that were equitable.🙂
While writing The Real Deal, I was very cognisant of portraying both facets across my STEM career. It is not 'all good' but it is not 'all bad' either.🌹
Thankful that 'her' readers have appreciated this!📘💜
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
While The Real Deal has many lessons and learnings (some hard truths, some harsh realities), it also DOES have laughter! 😁👇
Excerpt from the book: 📽️🧪
Another tryst with the spotlight took me to Bollywood - or more accurately to sharing the stage with Bollywood! I had been invited to a science festival and was about to walk on stage for a panel discussion with an acclaimed Indian classical dancer and a Bollywood producer.
As the session started, I took the microphone. I started confidently. ‘Hello, everyone, …. I am bringing science to this conversation, and we have Bollywood right here’, I said gesturing towards Mallika Sarabhai and Sidharth Roy Kapur.
Before I could continue, Mallika Sarabhai gently touched my shoulder, ‘No one has ever called me Bollywood before’, she said light-heartedly, to a room full of laughter. I tried to mutter something to save the day.
It would go down as a panel discussion where I spoke the least. For the most part, I was figuring out how not to commit any more faux pas’ with Mallika Sarabhai. 😅😂
More in the book: therealdealinstem.com
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
There’s something special about returning to a place that shaped a chapter of your life.
Ten years after starting a PhD and four years after leaving campus, it’s amazing how memories come flooding back. And finding labels in the lab still written in your own handwriting? That’s a small but meaningful reminder that our work leaves traces long after we’ve moved on.
Here’s to the people, experiments, lessons, and late nights that made the journey worthwhile. 🎓🔬
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It's been 10 years since I enrolled for my PhD at @IGIBSocial.
So glad I could make a visit, 4 years since I left the campus, and relive some of the memories (some of the labels in the labs in my handwriting still exist!)
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Best part was when someone showed my colloquium video open on their screen because ChatGPT pulled it up as a ready reference 🥹
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
Returning from a facilitation project in the social and development sector with so many learnings.
The world we inhabit is not just the world we see around us, but also the world we can access. We may 'see' ads of sunscreens and sanitary napkins, but if one cannot access or afford them, is that 'our' world or our life?
From the ivory towers of science, the experience opened my eyes to ground realities, resilience and reflections. 😍🙏
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
India giving a whole new meaning to the Pyrocene
Massive fire at Noida Ivy County residential society. Flames touching about 12 floors. No reports of any casualty yet.
📍 Sector 75, Noida.
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
Happening on 20th June!
Open to all!
Next up!
'Why I Study Tiny Shrimps in the Western Ghats' with Kunjulakshmi K.
⛰️Why are the Western Ghats so special for biodiversity?
⛰️🍤Why do shrimps live there?
🍤Why and How to scientists study shrimps?
This session promises to be 'shrimpy the best'! 💻🧑💻
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
I am happy to report that we have developed the world's first biomaterial capable of regenerating cartilage damaged by osteoarthritis (OA). @AdvSciNews
doi.org/10.1002/adhm.71252
Let me explain the significance in a🧵1/7
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
Jun 4
Honoured and humbled to be in the top 5% scientist #SciRank global registry 2025
While the metrics track global citations the credit is to my team of bright students & colleagues. It's a win for our collective dedication to cell and reproductive biology
@icmrnirwoh @ICMRDELHI
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Really happy to see the GuARDIAN Consortium review/white paper hit a 100 citations 🎉 When we put together this paper 7 yrs ago, we hoped it'd be a forward looking document for rare disease researchers in the country. This gives us a validation that the paper did meet its mark.
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Grateful to @sridharsivasubb and @vinodscaria for the opportunity to be a part of this publication and it was possible only by working very closely with everyone in the GuARDIAN team, especially @Anjali__Bajaj.
The full article is here: link.springer.com/article/10…
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
Jun 2
Celebrating science moments matters!
As a scientific community, we probably do it far far less than we should.
May 31
One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen: a standing ovation for the full Daraxonrasib results
I feel inspired and energised, to put it mildly — we have a targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer now, and nothing is undruggable anymore
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
In the energy-anxious times, INSA consulted a large number of leading experts and created a working paper. It's available at this link to download:
insaindia.res.in/pdf/INSA-En…
@insa_academy @IndiaDST @NITIAayog
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
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Deeply saddened by passing away of a close friend and colleague, Dr. Pradip Chakraborty. Pradip earned his PhD from Visva-Bharati University and, after spending several years in the United States, returned to India to build his scientific career @CSIR_IMTECH Chandigarh.
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
We celebrate today the 12th anniversary of Saroj's kidney transplant surgery.
एक तप पूर्ण झालं.
Immensely grateful to all those who have inspired and helped us.
#kidneytransplant
#liveorgandonation
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Samatha Mathew (She/her) retweeted
16 women died everyday just from dowry-related crimes. Any one trying to somehow draw a parallel between men and women facing gender violence/discrimination in India is insensitive to say the least.
May 23
India recorded 5,737 dowry deaths in 2024, nearly 16 women dying every day, or one death roughly every 90 minutes due to dowry-related harassment, domestic abuse, suicide, or other suspicious marital deaths, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report.
maktoobmedia.com/share/11554…
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Quite amused that my shared first author review/white paper contribution to this field has reached 99 citations 😄
It particularly feels like a personal milestone because this ties back to the work on rare diseases that I was fortunate enough to be a part of during my PhD days.
Watch the live stream of the event here: youtube.com/live/liLsdIX94Dc…
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