x.com/DebBijayeeta/s… After all the struggle of 6 straight years, when we get our work published, feel like it all got paid off. Bijayeeta Deb congratulations on your work.

Happy to share a fantastic work from Harshith C Y part I of his PhD thesis, now in Cell Reports. We report a stepwise signalling cascade involving two different peptides in rice wound-responses. Rice activates growth very quickly post-wounding unlike dicots cell.com/cell-reports/f…

Congratulations Avik Kumar Pal 🤩 x.com/sRNAPapers/sta…

I feel compelled to share our unfortunate experience with Neuberg Diagnostics. After nearly a year of frustration, delays, and unprofessionalism shown by Neuberg’s sequencing services. Here’s how it all unfolded:

We approached Neuberg for miRNA sequencing (4 samples), promising a competitive rate with analysis included. They requested a purchase order (PO) based on a quotation, which we promptly raised with advance payment.

We sent our samples in March 2024, with sequencing promised in 1-2 months. Despite repeated follow-ups, we only received the data in July, nearly five months later. When we requested the analysis, the company claimed a miscommunication and asked for an additional PO of 7,000 INR.

This was frustrating since the analysis was promised at the original cost. However, the person dealing with this called, stating the 7K INR was just a formality, and assured us we wouldn’t need to pay more, promising the analyzed data soon.

The analysis for the sequencing was provided in late October, but the data was of very poor quality. When we questioned the subpar results, their response was that contaminated kits had been used, and they promised to repeat the entire process for us.

After repeated reminders and calls, we received provisional data in December and were assured the full analyzed data would be provided by January. However, when we didn’t receive it and when they were contacted again, we were told every time that it would arrive within 7-10 days

After a year of anticipation and persistent inquiries about when we would receive the conclusive analyzed data, we were informed that it would only be accessible to us if we paid additional fees.

Following this, our efforts to reach out to them were met with silence, as our emails went unanswered and our phone calls were not returned. As a final-year PhD student, this has been disheartening.

What should’ve been a simple process wasted a year of my research. Despite repeated promises, they failed to meet commitments, leaving me with no usable data and lost time. This has severely impacted my ability to complete my thesis on time.

We strongly condemn this unethical and unprofessional behavior. It's a terrible experience for any researcher, but especially for a PhD student who depends on timely data to complete their work. To anyone considering their services, please be cautious and avoid the frustrations.

#PhDStruggles #ResearchFail #UnethicalScience #sciencetwitter #STEM #BadScience