We are saying goodbye to two people this month who have contributed a great deal to the growth of IGIB. A permanent one to Prof. Sohan Modak, who was a scientist and a teacher. A temporary one to Dr. Anurag Agrawal, ex director of IGIB who is moving to Ashoka University.
Prof. Modak has a long and old connection with IGIB, teaching the students and their mentors. He is cherished by both. Three of our faculty and one of our alumni have shared their fond memories of Prof. Modak with us. We also have Dr. Anurag Agrawal’s message in this issue of Pulse as he bids farewell to the physical IGIB.
It is hard to see the beauty of death. As it is also hard to say goodbye to people who venture on separate paths than us. Although it might be tough for us, our bodies do this day in and day out. I hope getting a few glimpses of such biological phenomena might serve as a pacifier for our aching hearts, along with serving as a reminder why goodbyes are necessary.
There are some final goodbyes like death. Most people shy away from talking about it. Although many of us have been through an existential crisis at some point of time, still talking about death is hard. Would it be any easier to talk about it if we see death as something that just recapitulates and extrapolates a basic function that is ubiquitous at cellular and molecular level.
Then there are temporary goodbyes. More about them later.
Development of an organism is one such example where cellular death happens at an extensive level. For example, when a baby is born there are around 100 billion neurons in the neonatal brain, but only 85% of these survive till adulthood. Similarly, almost half of the synaptic connections that are present at one year of age are lost as the infant brain develops into an adolescent brain. This extensive cell death and synaptic pruning helps in sculpting the adult human brain to prepare for dealing with the complexities of day to day life. Diseases like autism are examples of such faulty synaptic pruning, wherein excess connections remain inside the brain.
Such goodbye processes happen at the molecular level as well. RNA and proteins degrade with time and without this degradation the normal functioning of cells gets impaired. Protein aggregation is seen in diseases like Huntington’s, wherein the misfolded proteins instead of getting cleared up aggregate compromising the cellular functioning.
The temporary goodbyes too are seen at the cellular and molecular level. It starts from the moment gastrulation happens. The undifferentiated cells start to migrate so as to create the miracle of a functional multicellular organism. Then there are proteins (like hormones) that need to travel long distances.
All this said, by no means will it be easy for us to let these two wonderful scientists and remarkable human beings go. So, just remember that the beauty of a goodbye lies in the memories that live beyond it, like Walt Disney said, “Goodbye may seem forever. Farewell is like the end, but in my heart is the memory and there you will always be.”
Cover picture credit: Prateek Singh
Poorti Kathpalia, a scientist by training, is now pursuing her passion for making science fun and accessible through her sci-comm activities.