Why Ayurgenomics researchers continue despite scepticism about research

If ancient and modern medicine share the same goal, maybe there could be a cross-talk between them

Young scientist Mitali Mukerji was having an ordinary day at Delhi’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) when its director, Samir Brahmachari, walked up and handed her a piece of paper. Brahmachari had drawn a triangle in the middle of which was inscribed a Sanskrit word, prakriti. “Can you find out what this is?” Brahmachari asked Mukerji that afternoon in 2001. 

A bacterial geneticist, Mukerji had no idea what that triangle meant. She took that paper to her neighbour, who knew Sanskrit. He told Mukerji that Ayurveda classifies people based on their prakriti, or body type, made of three