Sign in

Niraj Rai

@nirajrai.bsky.social
94 followers 175 following 5 posts

Group Head, Ancient DNA and Population Genomics Lab, BSIP, Lucknow, India.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Shreya Ramachandran @srama.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
🤝🏽 We are so grateful to every community member who partnered with us. We returned to all participant communities to thank donors in person & share results! Paper: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Press release: biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/gut-mic... Happy to answer questions!
tandfonline.com
Distinct trajectories of urbanization shape the human gut microbiome across South Asia
Human gut microbiomes respond to lifestyle transitions, yet the extent to which these responses are conserved across spatio-cultural contexts remains undercharacterized. We present the South Asian ...
001
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Shreya Ramachandran @srama.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
🥛 Some communities like the Spitians have eaten wheat & dairy for generations, but others only recently added them after urbanizing—we can see this in their Bifidobacterium. 🩺 Controlling for community, urban folks show lower diversity & more Megamonas, which has been linked to obesity risk.
101
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Shreya Ramachandran @srama.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Some key takeaways: 🌏 SAMBAR microbiomes are distinct globally, but there's no single "South Asian microbiome." Culturally-specific diets matter! 🫘 The Pochury Naga eat Axone, a fermented soybean condiment—and we detect much more Bacillus in their gut microbiomes than the rest of the cohort.
101
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Shreya Ramachandran @srama.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Urbanization & lifestyle transition affect gut microbiomes worldwide, but South Asia has been left out of the conversation. We worked with 10 diverse communities to see how their microbiomes reflect local diets and dietary shifts. We call our dataset the South Asian MicroBiome ARRay, or SAMBAR 🍛
101
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Shreya Ramachandran @srama.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
🎉 New paper just dropped! So excited to share the first paper from my PhD work, with Nagarjuna Pasupuleti, Niraj Rai, Maanasa Raghavan & our incredible team of collaborators across India and Sri Lanka! 🧵below on what we found studying South Asian gut microbiomes:
154
Niraj Rai @nirajrai.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
India’s DNA map uncovers millions of missing genetic variants www.nature.com/articles/d44...
nature.com
India’s DNA map uncovers millions of missing genetic variants
A vast study reveals deep diversity, hidden disease risks and exposes the limits of Eurocentric medicine.
011
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Matthew Collins @matthewcollins.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
🧬 NEW JOB: @york-bioarch.bsky.social is hiring a Postdoc in Ancient DNA Work on the RoBMobS project to explore mobility and diversity in Roman Britain using genomic data. 💰 £37k - £39k ⏳ 34 months 📍 York, UK 📅 Apply by 24 March 2026 jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/post...
jobs.york.ac.uk
Jobs - The University of York
01426
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Miguel Angel Contreras Sieck💀🧬🦴🇵🇸 @miguelontlacuatzin.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Tracing the Neanderthal–Modern Human hybrid zone using paleogenomic data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
022
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Christina Warinner @christinawarinner.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Check out our new article in Current Anthropology on the changing landscape of archaeological publishing! www.doi.org/10.1086/739789
083
Niraj Rai @nirajrai.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
@matthewcollins.bsky.social please share the zoom link of your upcoming talk.
000
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Tom Higham @tommyhigham.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Fully funded PhD studentship here with @katerinad.bsky.social on palaeoproteomics. Apply below! jobs.univie.ac.at/job/PhD-Stud...
jobs.univie.ac.at
01120
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Tom Higham @tommyhigham.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
My dad and I published this paper this week in Archaeometry. It shows how you can avoid old wood effects when dating charcoal by using a bespoke Bayesian outlier model developed by my friends Mike Dee and Chris Ramsey a few years ago. We applied it to a Thai site. doi.org/10.1111/arcm.70105
doi.org
Dealing With Inbuilt Age: A Bayesian Approach to Radiocarbon Dating of Rice, Bamboo and Charcoal From Non Ban Jak, Thailand
New radiocarbon determinations from rice grains and bamboo have been obtained from Non Ban Jak, Northeast Thailand. These, along with charcoal, date a late Iron Age building sequence. The results com...
2235
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Marta Mirazon Lahr @martamlahr.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
Fabulous fossils ! @robertosaezm.bsky.social ‘s top 10 #FossilFriday posts of 2025, includes KNM-ER 23000 🤩✨😁
0167
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Matthew Collins @matthewcollins.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
Why is AAR (Amino Acid Racemisation; by implication #palaeoproteomics) so often overlooked for #geochronology? New paper by @neaarlab.bsky.social, using Bithynia snails 🐌 to date the last 1Ma: 4 new reference sets for climate & Quaternary Science 🌍 open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/5-396
0166
Niraj Rai @nirajrai.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Happy to share our recent ancient DNA based article. Dynamic human admixture histories over the past ~1300 years at the northern Himalayan frontier | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Dynamic human admixture histories over the past ~1300 years at the northern Himalayan frontier
Ancient and present-day human genomes shed light on ~1300 years of genetic admixture and continuity in the northern Himalayas.
011
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Marta Mirazon Lahr @martamlahr.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Like you, I've read so many nice things about Jane Goodall's amazing life and legacy today, but this video of the realease of the chimp called Wounda is beyond words ♥️ If only we could find the will to stop destroying the extraordinary natural world around us... youtu.be/ClOMa_GufsA?...
youtu.be
Wounda's Journey - Jane Goodall Witnesses Release of Chimpanzee Into New Island Sanctuary Site
YouTube video by Dr. Jane Goodall & the Jane Goodall Institute USA
25817
Reposted by Niraj Rai
Tom Higham @tommyhigham.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
As expected, Bluesky better than X for scientists www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Science research gets more engagement on Bluesky than X, study finds
Bluesky posts referencing scholarly articles ‘find substantially higher levels of interaction’ than on Elon Musk’s platform
0206
Niraj Rai @nirajrai.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Happy to share our new research article on demographic and migratory history of Sri Lanka. This is one of the detailed genetic studies ever done on Sri Lankan population www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Population histories of the Indigenous Adivasi and Sinhalese from Sri Lanka using whole genomes
Sri Lanka is home to diverse ethnic groups with different genetic histories. Urban Aragon et al. find that despite close genetic affinities, Indigenous Adivasi have more hunter-gatherer ancestry and l...
020