In this episode, I converse with Prof. Prachee Avasthi, an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. She completed a PhD in neuroscience under the supervision of Wolfgang Baehr at the University of Utah and a Postdoc with Wallace Marshall at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Prachee started her own research group at the University of Kansas Medical Center before moving to Dartmouth in 2020 and she also serves on the Board of Directors of eLife and is the incumbent President of ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in biology), a non-profit initiative promoting innovation and transparency via preprints and open peer review.

Prachee's group uses the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to study the formation of the cellular antenna, the cilium, and how its assembly is coordinated with other cellular processes. We indulge in a terrific conversation on her phenomenal journey through science and life; being exposed to research as an undergrad and graduate school in neuroscience; wonderful mentors who have inspired her and making mistakes by the plenty; the fun and collaborative aspects of science; the importance of fundamental research; actively reforming science and scientific publication through preprints and fixing the broken pipeline; communicating science through Twitter and stitching unexpectedly remarkable collaborations; and many more things!!