Pavan Agrawal

Associate Professor @kmc_manipal. Studying lonely flies, aggression, neuroepigenetics. Alumnus @HHMIJanelia @ccmb_csir. Bluesky handle @brainonwings.bsky.social

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

Our paper is out in eLife: DANCE. We combine machine learning with accessible hardware to quantify Drosophila social behaviors.
Low-cost behavioral rigs are not a compromise, they are a design philosophy. Accessibility changes the questions we can ask.
https://t.co/GRiLQR92qR

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

Three PhD positions open in our Lab, KMC Manipal, (2026–27).
Projects: social isolation & neurogenomics | wearable sensors & anxiety | neuro-immune regulation of behavior.
Tools: Drosophila genetics, transcriptomics, DANCE (eLife 2025).
See flyer for details.

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

In behavioral neuroscience, more assays do not always clarify a question.

Clearer experimental structure often does.

In behavioral work, design choices upstream shape everything downstream.

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

@Amanjsingh1996 Thanks Aman!

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

Our paper is out in eLife: DANCE. We combine machine learning with accessible hardware to quantify Drosophila social behaviors.
Low-cost behavioral rigs are not a compromise, they are a design philosophy. Accessibility changes the questions we can ask.
https://t.co/GRiLQR92qR

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

All code, hardware schematics, and analysis pipelines are open-source and available on GitHub: https://t.co/jHwFPzclHb

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

We thank the funding support by @DBTIndia and @ANRFIndia and @kmc_manipal @MAHE_Manipal for infrastructural support.
We acknowledge the co-authors for the sustained effort in validating the pipeline across various environments.

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

Tool building often moves the field faster than incremental experiments. I learned this from @LoogerL whose approach to designing new tools shaped how I think about neuroscience.

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

Monalisa Ghosh, PhD student in Groschner Lab, University of Graz,
NavinChandra Puppala, PhD student,
& Paulami Dey, research intern, at the Sillies Lab, University of Mainz and co first author on our eLife paper. Always good to see students progressing well.

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

Good to meet 3 former trainees who were visiting Manipal. All of them have been in their current labs for over a year now and it was nice to hear how they are doing.

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

More than a decade in and I still love how a tiny behavioral shift can open up an entire genetic mechanism. That moment when a puzzle suddenly falls into place never gets old. Glad to have students who chase those moments with the same curiosity!

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

Closing soon, 🎓 Calling #Masters graduates in Biological Sciences with National Fellowships! Join us at @ManipalUni to study aggression, sleep & neurodegeneration in Drosophila.

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

🚀 We’re hiring! Two fully funded PhD positions in Neuroscience & Behavior at the Agrawal Lab, Centre for Molecular Neurosciences, @MAHE_Manipal . 🧬🐛
National Fellowship holders encouraged.
🔬 #PhDOpening #Neuroscience #Drosophila #AcademicTwitter

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

🚀 We’re hiring! Two fully funded PhD positions in Neuroscience & Behavior at the Agrawal Lab, Centre for Molecular Neurosciences, @MAHE_Manipal . 🧬🐛
National Fellowship holders encouraged.
🔬 #PhDOpening #Neuroscience #Drosophila #AcademicTwitter

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

Huge thanks to @MIRM_blr & @SvetaKotak for organizing & hosting me! Loved the audience’s engaging questions, interdisciplinary discussions like these drive innovation! #RegenerativeMedicine #ML #Neuroscience

[Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine @MIRM_blr]

🧠🪰 Thrilled to host @PavanAgrawalLab at MIRM for a brilliant talk on decoding social stress in Drosophila using a low-cost ML toolkit!

Great insights into how fruit flies can model complex behaviors. Students loved it! @SvetaKotak #Neurobiology #FlyResearch #Drosophila

[JoJo Nakro Naga @Nakro_Jojo]

One frame.
A Christian journalist.
A Muslim soldier.
A Hindu pilot.
No slogans. No hate. Just India.

Different faiths. One flag. One mission.
This is India 🇮🇳 where diversity speaks, defends and soars.

#IncredibleIndia #UnityInDiversity #IndiaForPeace #IndiaPakistan #IndiaPakistanConflict #IndiaPakistan
@adgpi @IAF_MCC @SudarshanNewsTV

[Poonam Thakur @poonam_thakur6]

Excited to share the first preprint of our lab. Here we created a robust mouse model of #Parkinsons by injecting AAV6-α-synuclein & PFFs into the substantia nigra. This model recapitulates key features of PD, enabling mechanistic & therapeutic studies.https://t.co/1u1yKG0S5G

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

@AnjuShukla21 Thank you 🙂

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

🪰 We're thrilled to kick off the year ✨with a new preprint from our lab: 'DANCE – An Open-Source Analysis Pipeline and Low-Cost Hardware to Quantify Aggression and Courtship in Drosophila.' Let’s dive in! 🧵
#DANCE #innovation #ScienceTwitter #AIML #ML https://t.co/dwqIHrlWas

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

@PCReddyMouli1 Thanks Mouli

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

@deeptrivedivyas Thanks Deepti!

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

@SheebaVasu Thanks Sheeba, that would be great! Let us know how you like it.

[Pavan Agrawal @PavanAgrawalLab]

@ViditaVaidya Thanks Vidita for the encouraging comments during the EMBO conference.