Biological systems are complex with thousands of cellular components and are dynamic in nature. Our lab is excited about exploring and understanding the inner workings of complex biological systems and evolution of such systems. We are also interested in applying our understanding for betterment of human health. A major interest of the lab is to understand the causes of phenotypic heterogeneity in isogenic populations. Genetically identical cells in a population, be it a microbial population or a tumor, in identical environment often exhibit a wide variety of phenotypes. Our goal is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying such phenotypic heterogeneity. Phenotypic heterogeneity has important implications for persistence of bacteria in antibiotics, cancer progression, therapy resistance and relapse. Thus, our aim is to identify potential strategies to reduce heterogeneity which could have important implications for disease treatments. Our work is highly interdisciplinary in nature. In addition to basic microbiology and molecular biology techniques, we use FACS, fluorescence microscopy, Next Generation Sequencing, computational techniques and mathematical modelling to address our research questions.

Open positions: I am looking for talented and motivated Postdocs and PhD students in computational domains. Applicants with backgrounds in Biological Sciences, Bioinformatics, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering and Microfluidics with an interest in understanding complexity of biological systems are welcome to apply. If you are interested in joining the lab, please email me your CV along with a brief statement of your research interest. We are also happy to support applications for diverse fellowships for PhD students and postdocs.

All Publications

Gene regulatory network transitions reveal the central transcription factors in lung adenocarcinoma progression. by Ray U., Singh A. , Samanta D. , Dhar R. npj Systems Biology and Applications - (2026)
A two-step PCR assembly for construction of gene variants across large mutational distances by Routh S., Acharyya A., Dhar R. Biology Methods and Protocols 6 - (2021)
Increased heterogeneity in expression of genes associated with cancer progression and drug resistance by Bose A., Datta S. , Mandal R. , Ray U. , Dhar R. Translational Oncology 41 101879-101879 (2024)
Transcription factor binding process is the primary driver of noise in gene expression by Parab L., Pal S. , Dhar R. PLoS Genetics 18 e10105-e10105 (2022)
Metabolic remodeling and de novo mutations transcend cryptic variation as drivers of adaptation in yeast by Routh S., Lindsay R. J., Gudelj I. , Dhar R. Evolution 79 650-664 (2025)
EpICC: A Bayesian neural network model with uncertainty correction for a more accurate classification of cancer by Joshi P., Dhar R. Scientific Reports 12 - (2022)
Ribosome demand links transcriptional bursts to protein expression noise. by Pal S., Ray U. , Dhar R. eLife - (2026)
Living in a noisy world: origins of gene expression noise and its role in cellular decision-making by Pal S., Dhar R. FEBS Letters 598 1673-1691 (2024)
Single cell functional genomics reveals the importance of mitochondria in cell-to-cell phenotypic variation by Dhar R., Missarova A. M., Lehner B. , Carey L. B. eLife 8 - (2019)
A large-scale computational screen identifies strong potential inhibitors for disrupting SARS-CoV-2 S-protein and human ACE2 interaction by Singh A., Dhar R. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics - (2021)

Completed Projects

Principal Investigator

Investigating the emergence of multi-drug resistance from a large-scale laboratory fitness analysis of multi-mutant variants of beta-lactamase resistance genes DBT, NEW DELHI
Targeting regulators of phenotypic plasticity to inhibit cancer progression. Ignite Life Science Foundation

Co-Principal Investigator

CRISPR/Ca9 mediated genome engineering in industrially relevant non-conventional yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus for enhanced fatty alcohol production DBT, NEW DELHI
Development of novel thermophilic chemoautotrophic bacterial work horses for valorization of CO2 into fatty acids DBT, NEW DELHI
Development of novel thermophilic chemoautotrophic bacterial work horses for valorization of CO2 into fatty acids DBT, NEW DELHI
National Network Project of Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur Department of Biotechnology
Understanding Structure Function and Evolution of Regulatory Networks with a Special Emphasis on Human Diseases-BIC at Department of Biotechnology, IIT-Kharagpur DBT, NEW DELHI
Understanding Structure Function and Evolution of Regulatory Networks with a Special Emphasis on Human Diseases-BIC at Department of Biotechnology, IIT-Kharagpur DBT, NEW DELHI

Alumni members

Ph. D. Students

Anamika Acharyya

Area of Research: Epistatic interactions

Anirban Biswas

Area of Research: Computational Systems Biology

Aparna Ganguly

Area of Research: Disease Systems Biology

Debasmita Sarma Chaudhuri

Area of Research: Machine learning

Rakesh Mandal

Area of Research: Systems Biology

Sangay Sarap Sherpa

Area of Research: Computational Systems Biology

Satyaki Pahari

Area of Research: Cancer Systems Biology

Sayak Mitra

Area of Research: Gene and Process Scale Engineering

Sneha Majumder

Area of Research: Drug resistance

Subhasis Datta

Area of Research: Gene Regulation

Swarnava Garai

Area of Research: Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Upasana Ray

Area of Research: Computational Systems Biology