Welcome to my website!

Hi, My name is Harshavardhan BV. I'm a PhD student in the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. I am working with Dr. Mohit Kumar Jolly and Dr. Srimonta Gayen in studying heterogeneity and plasticity in cancer, specifically glioblastoma. I am also a receipent of the prestigios Prime Minister's Research Fellowship. I have completed my bachelors and masters in science from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.

I do sudo-biology. That means I don't work with biological specimens like a stereotypical (true) biologist. Instead, I'm more interested in the applications of computational and mathematical techniques in solving complex problems in biology. However, I am also interested in general computing and like to do coding, digital design among other things. I'm an aficionado of FOSS and openly reproducible research.

Things I Can Do

  • Write all the code
  • Fix your computer
  • Make fancy designs
  • Edit cringe videos
  • Pwn some noobs
  • Make dank memes
  • Read books and stuff
  • Drink much chai

Publications

Emergent dynamics of cellular decision making in multi-node mutually repressive regulatory networks

Published in Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 2025
Harshavardhan BV, Hanuma Sai Billakurthi, Sarah Adigwe, Kishore Hari, Herbert Levine, Tomas Gedeon, Mohit Kumar Jolly

Proneural-mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in glioblastoma

Published in iScience, 2024
Harshavardhan BV, Mohit Kumar Jolly

HOXA10-TWIST2 Antagonism Drives Partial Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal transition for Embryo Implantation

Published in Cell Death Discovery, 2025
Nancy Ashary, Sanjana Suresh, Anshul Bhide, Sharmishtha Shyamal, N Pranya, Anuradha Mishra, Saee Patil, A Anuradha, Shruti Hansda, B V Harshavardhan, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Deepak Modi

GRiNS: a python library for simulating gene regulatory network dynamics

Published in BMC Bioinformatics, 2025
Pradyumna Harlapur, Harshavardhan BV, Mohit Kumar Jolly

Tie2 activity in cancer associated myofibroblasts serves as novel target against reprogramming of cancer cells to embryonic-like cell state and associated poor prognosis in oral carcinoma patients

Published in Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research, 2025
Paromita Mitra, Uday Saha, Kingsly Joshua Stephen, Priyanka Prasad, Subhashree Jena, Ankit Kumar Patel, Harshavardhan BV, Santosh Kumar Mondal, Sillarine Kurkalang, Sumitava Roy, Arnab Ghosh, Shantanu Saha Roy, Jayasri Das Sarma, Nidhan Kumar Biswas, Moulinath Acharya, Rajeev Sharan, Pattatheyil Arun, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Arindam Maitra, Sandeep Singh

Endosomal pH is an evolutionarily conserved driver of phenotypic plasticity in colorectal cancer

Published in npj Systems Biology and Applications, 2024
Hari Prasad, Harshavardhan BV, Ayalur Raghu Subbalakshmi, Susmita Mandal, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Sandhya S. Visweswariah

Lineage-specific dynamics of loss of X upregulation during inactive-X reactivation

Published in Stem Cell Reports, 2024
Hemant Chandru Naik, Deepshikha Chandel, Sudeshna Majumdar, Maniteja Arava, Runumi Baro, Harshavardhan BV, Kishore Hari, Parichitran Ayyamperumal, Avinchal Manhas, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Srimonta Gayen

Multistability and predominant hybrid phenotypes in a four node mutually repressive network of Th1/Th2/Th17/Treg differentiation

Published in npj Systems Biology and Applications, 2024
Atchuta Srinivas Duddu, Elizabeth Andreas, Harshavardhan BV, Kaushal Grover, Vivek Raj Singh, Kishore Hari, Siddharth Jhunjhunwala, Breschine Cummins, Tomas Gedeon, Mohit Kumar Jolly

Reconstruction of single-cell lineage trajectories and identification of diversity in fates during the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2024
Yu-Chen Cheng, Yun Zhang, Shubham Tripathi, B. V. Harshavardhan, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Geoffrey Schiebinger, Herbert Levine, Thomas O. McDonald, and Franziska Michor

A resource-based mechanistic framework for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC)

Published in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2024
B. Vibishan, Harshavardhan B.V., Sutirth Dey

Fixed points and multistability in monotone Boolean network models

Preprint in bioRxiv, 2025
Sarah Adigwe, BV Harshavardhan, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Tomáš Gedeon

Collective amoeboid dynamics drives colonization of drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells

Preprint in bioRxiv, 2024
Shyamili Goutham, Anchita Gopikrishnan, Harshavardhan BV, Nivedhya Venas, Radhakrishnan Sabarinathan, Mohit Kumar Jolly, Ramray Bhat

Teaching Experience

Hands-on scRNA-seq analysis with scanpy - PMRF-IISSS095/II/2025

September 2025 - October 2025
ISSS, Bengaluru, India

A hands-on online course on single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis using scanpy.

Summer Training Program

June 2025 - July 2025
PHCCO, Bengaluru, India

A summer training program for undergraduates in computational oncology, featuring classes, hands-on sessions, and research discussions.

Introduction to Population Dynamics - PMRF-ISSS069/2024

October 2024 - November 2024
ISSS, Bengaluru, India

An online course on population dynamics bridging concepts from population ecology and non-linear dynamics.

Summer Training Program

May 2024 - July 2024
PHCCO, Bengaluru, India

A summer training program for undergraduates in computational oncology, featuring classes, hands-on sessions, and research discussions.

Programming in Python - DSC106A

January 2023 - August 2023
MSRUAS, Bengaluru, India

As an adjunct faculty, taught and evaluated an introductory course on the Python for 2nd semester studnets of B.Sc (Hons) in the Data Science and Analystics department.

Conferences / Symposium attended

23rd International Conference on Systems Biology

December 2024
IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India

Contributed talk
Session: Variability and Noise in Biological Systems
4 states ≠ 4 dimension: Proneural - Mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in Glioblastoma
Photo credits: ICSB 2024 organising team

13th European Conference on Mathematical and Theoretical Biology

July 2024
UCLM, Toledo, Spain

Minisymposium talk
Minisymposium: Genetic and non-genetic routes to phenotypic plasticity in cancer
4 states ≠ 4 dimension: Proneural - Mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in Glioblastoma
Photo credits: ECMTB2024 organising committee

7th Course on Computational Systems Biology of Cancer

September 2024
Institut Curie, Paris, France

Flash talk + Poster presentation
4 states ≠ 4 dimension: Proneural - Mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in Glioblastoma

Computational Oncology Workshop

March 2025
IIT Madras, Chennai, India

Poster presentation
Emergent dynamics of cellular decision making in multi‑node mutually repressive regulatory networks

Workshop on Computational Oncology: Modelling and Experiments

July 2024
IIT Hyderabad, India

Poster presentation
4 states ≠ 4 dimension: Proneural - Mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in Glioblastoma
Photo credits: Team WoCOn 2024

1st NIBMG Cancer Research Symposium

September 2024
NIBMG, Kalyani, India

Poster presentation
4 states ≠ 4 dimension: Proneural - Mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in Glioblastoma

Women in Systems Oncology Symposium

July 2024
IBAB, Bengaluru, India

Poster presentation
4 states ≠ 4 dimension: Neural-progenitor-like - Mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in Glioblastoma
Photo credits: WISO support team

43rd Annual Conference of The Indian Association for Cancer Research

January 2024
IISER, Pune, India

Poster presentation
4 states ≠ 4 dimension: Neural-progenitor-like - Mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in Glioblastoma
Photo credits: IACR organising committee

4th Indian Cancer Genome Atlas Conference

October 2023
IISER, Pune, India

Poster presentation
4 states ≠ 4 dimension: Neural-progenitor-like - Mesenchymal antagonism dominates the patterns of phenotypic heterogeneity in Glioblastoma
Won the best poster award
Photo credits: ICGA foundation

Research Internships

Investigating Cancer Cell Populations using Agent-based Simulations

June 2019 - April 2019
Under Prof. Sutirth Dey, IISER Pune

Modelled the system of Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer as three types of cells in PhysiCell along with resources in microenvironment. It was observed that the competitive outcomes depended on the spatial distribution to some extent.

Diffusion in Nano-confined Water

May 2018 - July 2018
Under Dr. Shivprasad Patil, IISER Pune

Learnt to operate a novel Near-field Scanning Optical Microscope (NSOM) + Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) that would confine water at nano-meter scale as well as to perform Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) on unconfined water to measure diffusion. The existing control software led to crashing and damaging the tips, so helped with rewriting the logic of the software in LabVIEW.

Extra-curricular activities

Notebook Drive

August 2022 - February 2024
Mentorship and Outreach program volunteer

NoteBook Drive is a student-run voluntary organization of IISc working towards improving quality of education in underprivileged government schools in and around Bengaluru.

Mimamsa

August 2016 - April 2020
General Coordinator, Website Coordinator, Livestream Coordinator, Physics Question Making Team Member

Mimamsa is a national level student run annual science quiz organised by the students of IISER Pune. It is one of the toughest undergraduate level science quizzes in India.
Photo credits: Mimamsa, IISER Pune