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Vikas Navratna

@vikasnavaratna.bsky.social
506 followers 502 following 366 posts

Scientist. Cook. Research Faculty at the University of Michigan. Membrane protein paparazzi. Dining enthusiast. Immigrant.

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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Happy 250th 4th!
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Caroline Bartman @cbartman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
🚨first Bartman lab preprint! it's an LC-MS method to measure "total Coenzyme A" (sum of all acyl-CoAs). this will let us study coA synthesis flux using heavy-isotope tracing! huge congrats to first author Amelia Taylor and star coauthor @mzspectrum.bsky.social ! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Cauliflory on the Eastern Redbud.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Ann Arbor blossoms. Sights that never get old.
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Krystle J McLaughlin @biophyskrys.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
I just emailed someone and got this amazing out of office reply: "Hello, I will be out of office from April 16th to May 1st, stepping away to fully commit to the responsible consumption of seasonal mangoes." #outofofficegoals
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Stress-baking will continue until morale improves. Samuel Smith's chocolate stout, espresso, & sour cream cake.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
It is a bit insane that the Artemis II crew started from the earth, flew around the moon, and came back to the earth, faster than it takes for the journals to send your paper out for review.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Stress-baking for the lab, to prevent myself from spontaneously combusting because of the job market. Strawberry compote & cream cheese bundt cake.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
I just got my ND summary statement today. And this hits on a whole new level.
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Mariko Bennett @nachoriko.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.
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Caroline Bartman @cbartman.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
If the number e is named after Euler should it be pronounced “oi”
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
No one said you can't bake a Basque cheesecake in a pie crust.
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Holy smoke. What ultimately happened???
Image from their link showing evidence of fabricated references
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GenZadChemE @genzadcheme.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Good opportunity for a grad student looking to get some industry experience before they graduate: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43... Get involved with protein expression, purification, biochemical and biophysical assays, and get familiar with the process of drug discovery!
linkedin.com
Vertex Pharmaceuticals hiring Vertex Fall Co-op 2026, Protein Sciences in San Diego, CA | LinkedIn
Posted 11:48:49 PM. Job DescriptionKickstart Your Career at Vertex!Are you ready to make a real impact? At Vertex, our…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Content with how my favorite Persian love cake turned out. Nutty & tender crumb with a flavor profile of orange, rose, & cardamom.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
I began speaking in tongues around the 1400s.
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The Vilcek Foundation @vilcekfoundation.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Join us in congratulating the winners of our 2026 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science, Fashion & Culture, Fashion & Design, and Art History! This year, we awarded $850,000 to 14 immigrants and cultural leaders. vilcek.co/4aemyr2
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Donuts.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
My first ion channel study, a decade after I started working on membrane proteins. We report the cryo-EM structure of TWIK-2 & develop a high-throughput automated patch clamp e-phys assay to screen modulars of TWIK-2 channel activity. A great collaborative team effort. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Insights into the structure and modulation of human TWIK-2 - Nature Communications
TWIK-2 is an endolysosomal potassium channel implicated in inflammatory responses. Here, authors present a cryo-EM structure of human TWIK-2 and establish a high-throughput automated patch-clamp elect...
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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 30/01/2026
❤️
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
What a fucking end to the week. Loss of a literal legend. Moira Rose was one of my most favorite characters in the entirety of TV/film world.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Oven-baked sable fish tikka & rice.
Three oven-baked 8" skewers of cubed & marinated sable fish and vegetables arranged in parallel, next to a portion of basmati rice, in a colorful painted ceramic bowl. The image is illuminated by the soft ambient light of a winter afternoon.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Science is, certainly, not okay. Talk to ECRs and early-mid career people in academic science, especially immigrants. They're all a drink and nudge away from breaking down while sobbing. Actually, right now, it is the worst and hopeless time to be looking for a future or a stable career in academia.
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Ragothaman Yennamalli @structbioinfo.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Way to start the year with a huge humblebrag! 🎉🎉🎉 I have been selected as the Indian Ambassador for @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social seventh cohort (2026-2028)!!! Eagerly looking forward to working with other ambassadors to promote biophysics and bioinfo in India. 🥳 🙌 biophysics.cld.bz/Biophysical-...
Seventh cohort of BPS ambassadors in Biophysical Society January 2026 bulletin
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Ragothaman Yennamalli @structbioinfo.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
@vikasnavaratna.bsky.social This is right up your alley! farzanashaju.github.io/how-does-ind... Haven't read it fully, yet! Sounds interesting...
farzanashaju.github.io
How Does India Cook Biryani?
A large-scale dataset and VLM-based pipeline for analyzing procedural differences across 12 regional Indian biryani variants using 120 cooking videos.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Thank you PBS! For teaching an immigrant like me so much, if not everything that I know, about American history, geography, food, nature, politics, music, art, & culture. Since moving to the US in 2015, watching PBS daily, in some form, has been one of the most enriching experiences of my stay here.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
First working day of the new year, got an acceptance email from Nat. Comms. I hope the rest of the 2026 isn't already scheming to offset this.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
So it begins! Ginger spice cake, & black coffee with cardamom.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Symbolizing the year that was, burnt cheesecake with sour cream instead of heavy cream.
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Joshua G. Schraiber @jgschraiber.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
This story is absolutely wild. Did you know that avocados change sex over the course of a day? And that it's controlled by a single ancient balanced polymorphism? This is flat our crazy
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
It is soup weather, after all.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Can I get the check mate?
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Not really the lab, but the Umich campus on a sunny day after the snow is a sight to see!!
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Yamuna Krishnan @krishnanyamuna.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH. And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you. A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Flanken cut short ribs marinated in the refrigerator for 24 hrs in yoghurt & berbere spice, wrapped in baking paper, & baked for 1 hr at 375F.
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Krishna Reddy @krishnareddy.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
My lab is hiring a postdoc! We have many exciting projects on membrane transporters at the interface of protein structure-function, bioinformatics, directed evolution, and protein engineering. Applications considered on a rolling basis, so submit ASAP. Please share! jobs.usf.edu/hcmUI/Candid...
jobs.usf.edu
Postdoctoral Scholar Research
The Reddy Lab at the University of South Florida (USF) is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to join our multidisciplinary team studying the structure, mechanism, evolution, and engineering of membrane...
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Science Careers @sciencecareers.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
"I had invested nearly 3 years working on it. Learning they had poached it felt like a huge betrayal—and transformed my approach to collaboration." #AcademicChatter bit.ly/4oPAvAA
An illustration of several hands writing on the same piece of paper, with text: How I recovered from a collaboration gone wrong
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Jakub Tomek @jakubtomek.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Author copies of our new book on statistics (mainly) for life scientists arrived recently. After three years of work, this is exciting, especially as we really hope it can help make a positive difference. What's so special about it? 🧵
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Pedro Peres-Neto @comecology.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Did you publish with researchers outside your lab during grad school? Or published as faculty with a student not under your supervision? I’m collecting examples of cross-lab collaboration in graduate training. Please share your experience & this post! Repository: bit.ly/4pT66BE
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Cultural appropriation taken to the next level!! Absurd to trademark the word sabzi!! www.theguardian.com/food/comment...
theguardian.com
I called my recipe book Sabzi – vegetables. But the name was trademarked. And my legal ordeal began
The granting of patents and trademarks to foods and words from the global south is part of a long colonial grab. It’s time to realise we share what we cook, and what we call it
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
I think if my wife opens a focaccia store, I will be able to retire. Look at those deep pockets!
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
I'm on the job market. Including my graduate student days, here is my experience. 18 yrs of protein biochemistry 17 yrs of assay design 16 yrs of science writing 11 yrs of membrane proteins 11 yrs of eukaryotes 8 yrs of cryo-electron microscopy 7 yrs of X-ray crystallography 7 yrs of prokaryotes
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Richard Held @rgsheld.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
I wrote a bit about practical considerations for using #cryo-ET labels and some things to work on if we want to find any protein in any cell. authors.elsevier.com/a/1mA6h,LqAr...
authors.elsevier.com
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NPR @npr.org · 30/11/2025
Immigrants make up a significant proportion of all the country's doctors. New policies are making it harder and less appealing for foreign-born physicians to come to the U.S.
n.pr
'Nobody wants to come': What if the U.S. can no longer attract immigrant physicians?
Immigrants make up a significant proportion of all the country's doctors. New policies are making it harder and less appealing for foreign-born physicians to come to the U.S.
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
Snow cone.
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sobolevsky.bsky.social @sobolevsky.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Discovery of new AMPA receptor regulators – RNA molecules that act as competitive antagonists causing CNS-related toxicity when intended for treatment of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Collaboration with Regulus Therapeutic/Novartis! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Department of Chemistry, Stanford University @stanfordchemistry.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Prof. Laura Dassama (Stanford Chem) is developing a small-molecule therapy for sickle cell disease that removes BCL11A, restoring fetal hemoglobin without gene editing. Her goal is a simpler, more affordable sickle cell therapy. brnw.ch/21wXP8k
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Liz Furman @loamlizzard.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Go my Bothriolepis... This year's fish pecan pie! Bothriolepis was a peculiar-looking placoderm from the Devonian period or the Paleozoic. It had two long pointed pectoral fins and silly little eyes on top of its head. #fossil #fish #paleontology #bothriolepis
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Happy eating until you physically can't anymore day to those who celebrate! I'm kinda looking forward to my timeline being inundated with Thanksgiving meal pictures! Longer tables not higher fences and all that!
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Vikas Navratna @vikasnavaratna.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
How are they both 99 cents each?
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