Welcome to Agrawal Lab
Agrawal lab studies how environmental stressors and abused drugs affect epigenome and transcriptome in the brain leading to subsequent changes in various behaviors. Given the public health problem posed by stressors such as social isolation and abused drugs it is important to understand molecular mechanisms responsible for these phenomena. To approach this problem we use fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila is a powerful, genetically tractable model organism to study complex behaviors and it is a pivotal tool to understand genetic and epigenetic mechanisms involved in various neurological disorders.
About the PI
Dr. Pavan Agrawal is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Molecular Neurosciences, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, MAHE, India. He launched his independent research group in Manipal in 2019 as a DBT, India Ramalingaswami Re‑entry Fellow and Assistant Professor.
As a Postdoctoral Associate, he worked at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus in Virginia, USA, with Dr. Ulrike Heberlein and Dr. Loren Looger. He earned his PhD at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, India, in the laboratory of Prof. L S Shashidhara.
His work has identified both whole‑brain and cell‑type‑specific transcriptional and epigenetic changes in Drosophila using cutting‑edge genomic methods. Insights from these approaches are combined with high‑throughput quantitative behavioral assays to uncover causal mechanisms that shape neural circuits and behavior. In Manipal, his lab continues to explore these themes at the level of the organism, the whole brain and specific cell types.
Tools & Techniques
Funding
Department of Biotechnology, Government of India
DBT-Ramalingaswami
Re-entry Fellowship
MAHE start-up grant
SERB Core Research Grant
Department of Biotechnology, Government of India
DBT, India Research Grant
