Writing

This list is not up to date. For most recent stories: https://www.nytimes.com/by/apoorva-mandavilli

Features:

All Features

The ‘London Patient,’ Cured of H.I.V., Reveals His Identity The New York Times, March 2020
Adam Castillejo endured a decade of grueling treatments and moments of despair to become only the second person to be cured of H.I.V. Now, he says, “I want to be an ambassador of hope.”

When Measles Arrives: Breaking Down the Anatomy of Containment Undark, April 2019
When a child with measles arrived at a health center near Boston, staff had to respond quickly. They did — but there were lessons to be learned, too.

In India, a renewed fight against leprosy The New York Times, April 2019
Health workers thought they had vanquished the disease in 2005. But it lived on, cloaked in stigma and medical mystery.

The placenta, an afterthought no longer The New York Times, December 2018
An ephemeral organ, long dismissed merely as afterbirth, increasingly is viewed as critical to understanding the health and course of pregnancy.

The world’s worst industrial disaster is still unfolding The Atlantic, July 2018
In Bhopal, residents who survived the massive gas leak and those who arrived later continue to deal with the consequences.

The brain that wasn’t supposed to heal The Atlantic, April 2016
Steve Mishkin’s unexpected recovery is a case study in luck, split-second decisions, and the many, many things that need to go right for a trauma patient to get well.

How shock therapy is saving some children with autism Spectrum, October 2016
Given its reputation, the most shocking thing about electroconvulsive therapy might be how beneficial — and banal — it actually is.

The lost girls Spectrum, October 2015
Misdiagnosed, misunderstood or missed altogether, many women with autism struggle to get the help they need.

Man-eater overload The New Yorker, December 2014
Tiger attacks on the thousands of tribal people who live on Indian park lands have been escalating.

The AIDS Cure Popular Science, March 2014
Reservoirs of HIV hide deep within the body. Scientists are now closing in on methods to wipe them out.

Appropriate technology: Make anything, anywhere Nature, August 2006
Can everyone use technology creatively? Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think so and have launched ‘Fab Labs’ around the world to prove it.

DDT returns Nature Medicine, July 2006
The most infamous pesticide in history is also the most effective weapon against malaria. Ready or not, DDT is on its way back to Africa.

Visual neuroscience: Look and learn Nature, May 2006
Prevailing wisdom says the adult brain cannot learn to see if it had no visual stimulation during childhood, but blind people in India seem to be breaking all the rules.

News

All News

Shielding the Fetus From the Coronavirus The New York Times, March 2020
New studies suggest the virus can cross the placenta, but newborns have been mildly affected if at all.

Can you become immune to the coronavirus? The New York Times, March 2020
It’s likely you can, at least for some period of time. That is opening new opportunities for testing and treatment.

How long will coronavirus live on surfaces or in the air around you? The New York Times, March 2020
A new study could have implications for how the general public and health care workers try to avoid transmission of the virus.

Wondering about social distancing? The New York Times, March 2020
Answers to your most common questions about the best practices for stemming the tide of the coronavirus pandemic.

What pregnant women should know about the coronavirus The New York Times, March 2020
The risks, so far, seem no greater than for anyone else, but the research is thin and only applies to later stage of pregnancy.

They recovered from  the coronavirus. Were they infected again? The New York Times, February 2020
In a few cases, patients again tested positive for the virus after they were no longer ill. But little is known about the virus, and it’s possible that testing flaws may be to blame.

Why the New Coronavirus (Mostly) Spares Children The New York Times, February 2020
So far, very few young children seem to be falling ill. The pattern was seen in outbreaks of SARS and MERS, too.

F.D.A. Approves New H.I.V.-Prevention Drug, but Not for Everyone The New York Times, October 2019
Citing a lack of evidence, the agency will require Gilead to conduct further trials in women.

A Simple Regimen Can Prevent TB. Why Aren’t More People on It? The New York Times, September 2019
Two antibiotics, taken for a month, can stop a leading killer. But “when it’s for TB, people just sort of shrug.”

Intensive Anti-H.I.V. Efforts Meet With Mixed Success in Africa The New York Times, July 2019
Scientists tested a costly approach to curbing the AIDS epidemic: Test everyone in the community, and treat anyone who is infected.

Breast Milk is Teeming with Bacteria — That’s Good for the Baby The New York Times, June 2019
Breast-fed milk may nourish a baby’s microbiome in ways that bottled breast milk can’t.

Half of H.I.V. Patients Are Women. Most Research Subjects Are Men. The New York Times, May 2019
Trials of vaccines and treatments have not included enough female participants. Now that scientists are exploring possible cures, the need to enroll women is greater than ever.

How to kill HIV: Target its “influencers” Scientific American, May 2019
Applying network theory to HIV’s structure has revealed the most valuable—and vulnerable—parts of the virus.

An H.I.V. cure: Answers to 4 key questions The New York Times, March 2019
Translating the latest success against the AIDS virus into a practical treatment will take years — if it happens at all. Here are answers to some of the most pressing questions raised by the news.

H.I.V. Is Reported Cured in a Second Patient, a Milestone in the Global AIDS Epidemic The New York Times, March 2019
Scientists have long tried to duplicate the procedure that led to the first long-term remission 12 years ago. With the so-called London patient, they seem to have succeeded.

Your sweat will see you now The New York Times, January 2019
A new device — wearable, wireless and battery free — improves the ability to monitor and diagnose health problems by analyzing the sweat on your skin.

‘Left behind’: Drug companies and researchers have overlooked patients who don’t respond to HIV meds STAT, January 2019
Drug companies and researchers aren’t actively pursuing new treatments that would boost the immunity of HIV non-responders, the tens of thousands of people for whom drugs now don’t work.

The world needs a urine test for TB. But it’s already here The New York Times, December 2018
The W.H.O. has recommended such a test for H.I.V.-positive patients since 2015. But in poor countries, few qualifying patients are receiving it.

Female scientists turn to data to fight lack of representation on panels The New York Times, September 2016
Noticing the skewed lineups at conferences, a Princeton neuroscientist and colleagues have started a website to compare the gender ratios at conferences.

One Year after Sandy, Uneven Recovery at New York University’s labs Scientific American, October 2013
Walking through Gordon Fishell’s lab now, you would never know that much of his research was swept away by last year’s superstorm. Other scientists at New York University’s medical center cannot say the same.

Opinion:

All Opinion

Can China Prevent Its Next Epidemic? Undark Magazine, February 2020
China’s response to the coronavirus outbreak has drawn praise, but more important will be the lessons it takes away.

India’s government is becoming increasingly anti-science Scientific American, February 2016
Scientists join writers, artists and historians in protesting the Modi government’s growing interference in academic affairs.

What’s in a name? Whatever you’d like Spectrum, May 2015
What does ‘autism’ mean? And who owns this term? A keynote talk at the 2015 International Meeting for Autism Research dove headlong into this rabbit hole of words and their many meanings.

Alone in a room full of science writers LadyBits on Medium, November 2013
On being the only Indian woman at a science writers’ conference.

A new high-tech grassroots effort to fight breast cancer Slate, June 2013

Held to ransom Nature, March 2007
A pharma giant’s decision to withhold new drugs from Thailand will only hurt patients, says Apoorva Mandavilli.

Big issues from a small child Nature, January 2007
How far can a parent go in managing the life of their disabled child? Perhaps too far.

Profiles

All profiles

Indian bioscience: The anti-bureaucrat Nature, May 2015
K. VijayRaghavan is determined to cut through red tape and build up biological science in India.

India’s watchdog: A breath of fresh air Nature, February 2007
How often does independent research change laws as well as minds? A lobby group in Delhi is forcing the Indian government into new regulations. Apoorva Mandavilli meets its leader.

Stephen Lewis Nature Medicine, October 2006
In a roomful of stuffy diplomats, Stephen Lewis stands out for his powerful rhetoric and punchy humor. More than once, his habit for speaking uncomfortable truths has shamed governments into action.

Thomas Frieden Nature Medicine, April 2006
It’s not often that the health official of a city makes global headlines—even when the city in question is New York. With his daring policies on HIV, diabetes and smoking, Thomas Frieden is putting New York on the map.

Dominique Toran-Allerand Nature Medicine, October 2005
Don’t call her a women’s health researcher, but Dominique Toran-Allerand knows more about estrogen than almost anyone else. And she earned that knowledge by questioning dogma every step of the way.

Woo-Suk Hwang Nature Medicine, May 2005
In the West, Woo-Suk Hwang is an enigma. In his home country, he is a scientist with perhaps too much power. In either place, he is a stem cell star.

David Ho Nature Medicine, November 2004
Credited with some of the biggest breakthroughs in tackling HIV/AIDS, David Ho has been a star from the beginning. But in a field fraught with controversy, fame may have come at a cost.

Yusuke Nakamura Nature Medicine, June 2004
Yusuke Nakamura might not win any popularity contests in his homeland, but friends and rivals agree that his unique blend of scientific skill and financial savvy makes him the most influential force in Japanese research.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne Nature Medicine, January 2004
How do you top solving a century-old riddle in developmental neurobiology? By moving to a company with no commercial interest in neuroscience. For someone as ambitious as Marc Tessier-Lavigne, leaving academia for the biotech giant Genentech could be the perfect choice.

7 thoughts on “Writing”

  1. Hi Apoorva,

    I hope you’re well. Roxanne Khamsi suggested I contact you — I’m the deputy editor of Real Simple, and I have a story in the works that needs a great health and science writer. If you’re interested in learning more, would you drop me a line? Thanks!

    Anna

  2. I read your article about the Bhopal disaster in The Atlantic. Do you know of any private organizations that sponsor assistance to those affected in Bhopal? I am a former Union Carbide employee, now retired.

  3. Hi Apoorva,

    I enjoyed reading your article – “The Placenta, an Afterthought No Longer” – and wanted to reach out.

    Your story brought to light several very important issues in prenatal care. I’m reaching out because it was your lead sentence that truly struck a nerve for a really interesting private, clinical stage company who also read your article. They are developing innovative medicines from the placenta, and will be releasing pivotal data in early January that I’d love to brief you on under embargo.

    Could I kindly email you with more details?

    Thanks in advance,
    Jon

  4. Appreciate your well written article about the London patient, and the curing of HIV. I am old enough to have cared for AIDS patients in the 1980’s when we had no clue what was happening. It is a terrible affliction, and I welcome any innovation. That said, I have a bone to pick with the information. You failed to mention why this mutation is significant against many infectious agents, how different ethnicities are affected, and that these transplants involved rare homozygous forms of the mutation. Perhaps part of the success might rest in the patient’s own DNA as well. The same mutation, while protective against one set of diseases, may not help against others, and in fact, increase vulnerability https://creation.com/ccr5delta32-a-very-beneficial-mutation

    The Delta 32-CCR5 mutation was discovered when researchers tested exhumed remains of Black Plague survivors, and their subsequent offspring in the UK. Two copies- homozygous and you are immune; one copy heteroygous and you get sick, but recover. This mutation is found in the one copy form in a high percentage of those of European descent- estimated up to 40%. In the case of the Berlin patient, donors were homozygous which is a much rarer occurrence. Since the CCR5 gene is found in bubonic/pnuemonic plague, Ebola and other hemorrhagic fevers, airborne anthrax, and some pox viruses like hemorrhagic measles/smallpox, it has implications in overall disease outbreak patterns as well as mortality and morbidity of the same agent in different populations. The absence of Delta 32 is thought to be a contributory factor in the decimation of African populations by AIDS. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2881106/ In Africa, it is almost nonexistent. A different story in areas occupied by both the Vikings, and the Romans. A recent study of Slavic nations revealed these percentages: The frequency of CCR5Δ32 has been already established in all three main populations of Eastern Slavs: Russians (2-9), Ukrainians (3,5,10), and Belarussians (3,9); in three out of four main Western Slavic populations: Poles (11), Czechs (12,13), and Slovaks (14); and in two populations of South Slavs: Bulgarians (15,16) and Slovenians (17), representing two main branches of South Slavs, South-Eastern and South-Western Slavs, respectively. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2080408/ In the subsequent studies, Croats were 7%.

    Asian and Middle Eastern nations fair much worse. The Chinese are less than 1%. Only two heterozygous individuals from Ismailia carried the CCR5-􏰀32 allele (0.6%), and no homozygous (􏰀32/􏰀32) individuals were detected among the tested samples. The presence of the CCR5-􏰀32 allele among Egyptians may be attributed to the admixture with people of European descent. Thus we conclude that the protective deletion CCR5-􏰀32 is largely absent in the Egyptian population. https://biosci-batzerlab.biology.lsu.edu/Publications/Salem_and_Batzer_2007_ MutationResearch.pdf. Cameroon also had 0%.

    Delta 32 is not a “superhuman” protector. High incidence of this mutation were found in those who died early of multiple sclerosis, and all those with sickle cell disease. It was also associated with higher death rates for various infective agents. https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/elsevier/pros-and-cons-of-a-missing-chemokine-receptor-comments-on-is-the-3PT0XECrss

    In conclusion, I think it wise to present both the good, and bad about this mutation. Unfortunately people only see what they want to as numerous gay websites link to testing labs for this. The subliminal message being “if you have it, you can do anything you want without consequences.” This super man concept was the basis of the Chinese embryo alteration. Be mindful what you print as the lay person will assume.

  5. I hope your day is going well. I’ve greatly appreciated all of your articles and Tweets during the pandemic. Thank you for crushing it on the regular.

  6. Your one article somewhat critical of the right wing Indian Modi government is not available. I understand you maybe a fan of PM Modi. Most people of Indian origin subscribe to his right wing politics irrespective of what they believe here in the US though as a journalist should you not have an active link to that article?

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