Vishal Bharti
Bioinformatician · Computational Biologist · Statistical Tool Developer
Professional Summary
I build computational and statistical methods for genome engineering and RNA biology, currently as Project Associate-II in the RNA Biology Group at CSIR-IGIB. The question I keep returning to is whether a biological conclusion actually follows from the data that produced it, and it runs through most of what I have done: a co-first-author method for predicting intramolecular RNA triple helices (Biochemistry, ACS), single-cell RNA-seq analyses for a colleague's CRISPRi study comparing repair of staggered and blunt Cas9-cut DNA ends (figures credited in her PhD thesis), and StickForStats, an open-source platform that validates the assumptions behind a statistical test before running it. I came to biology from electronics engineering, taught myself the field full time after my B.Tech, and entered through an M.Tech at IIT Guwahati (GATE-BT All-India Rank 127, top ~1%).
Professional Experience
Project Associate-II
Feb 2023 - PresentInstitute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi
Supervisor: Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty
- Co-developed (co-first author) TRIPinRNA, an in silico platform for predicting intramolecular RNA triple helix structures; co-supervised with Dr. Souvik Maiti
- Re-analysed single-cell RNA-seq data (BD Rhapsody; five sample-tagged populations) from a colleague's CRISPRi DNA-repair PhD study: Seurat QC, integration and differential expression against control; gene-set comparisons of staggered-end (en1FnCas9) and blunt-end (SpCas9) repair populations; DAVID GO enrichment; heat map and volcano plots credited in her thesis. Also made the ClinVar pathogenic-deletion plots credited in the same thesis (Fig. 5.2)
- Built StickForStats, an open-source statistical-analysis platform whose Guardian engine validates the assumptions behind a test before it runs (bioRxiv preprint, DOI: 10.64898/2026.06.15.732278; in peer review at BMC Bioinformatics)
- Computational and proteomics analysis of IGF2BP1-G-quadruplex regulation of CCN1 expression (Biochemistry, ACS); co-supervised with Dr. Mary K. Ekka
Senior Research Fellow
Jun 2022 - Sep 2022Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Supervisor: Dr. Vibin Ramakrishnan
- Carried out a hybrid proteomics-cheminformatics-network-medicine analysis of Ashwagandha and Yograj Guggulu for osteoarthritis
- Performed protein-protein-interaction analysis and computational drug repurposing
- Analyzed proteomics data and performed network pharmacology studies
Education
Master of Technology (M.Tech)
Biotechnology
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
2020 - 2022 | CGPA: 8.75/10
Thesis: Transcriptome-wide identification of NMD substrate in the absence of UPF3B gene
Supervisor: Dr. Kusum K. Singh
Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech)
Electronics and Communication Engineering
Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolkata
2014 - 2018 | CGPA: 8.19/10
Thesis: Platform integrating NCBI BLAST and PDB for protein analysis
Supervisor: Prof. Indranil Basu
Senior Secondary (AISSCE)
Science Stream
Sri Ramakrishna Sarada Math & Mission Vivekananda Central School
2011 - 2013 | Hazaribagh, Jharkhand | 88.20%
Technical Skills
Programming Languages
Bioinformatics Tools
Data Science & Analysis
Network Analysis
Web Development
Other Tools
Key Research Projects
TRIPinRNA Platform
Co-developed an in silico platform for predicting intramolecular RNA triple helix structures. Published in Biochemistry (ACS) 64(1):250-265 (2025); co-first author (equal contribution).
View Details →DNA Repair Mechanisms Analysis
Single-cell RNA-seq analysis for a colleague's PhD study of how CRISPRi cells repair staggered versus blunt DNA ends: Seurat differential expression, gene-set comparisons and GO enrichment, with the heat map and volcano plots credited in her thesis.
View Details →StickForStats Statistical Analysis Platform
Built an open-source platform whose Guardian engine runs the relevant subset of its eight assumption validators before a test executes and, on critical violations, reroutes to an appropriate nonparametric alternative. Validated against SciPy and R; it is live (public beta) at stickforstats.com. Described in a bioRxiv preprint (DOI: 10.64898/2026.06.15.732278), in peer review at BMC Bioinformatics; first and corresponding author.
View Details →RNA Lab Navigator
Developed a retrieval-augmented research assistant for internal lab documents and the primary literature: keyword (BM25) retrieval over a Weaviate index, with an LLM answering from the top passages; the source documents are listed under each answer. Deployed for the lab on the institute network in July 2025.
View Details →Awards & Achievements
Best Poster Award, EMBO Conference 2025
CCMB Hyderabad (2025)
For StickForStats (poster "StickForStats: Publish Research with Confidence"). First author and presenter. View the poster (PDF, 2.4 MB)
Graduate Assistantship
Ministry of Education, Government of India (2020-2022)
Financial assistantship during MTech program
GATE Biotechnology - Rank 127
Top ~1% (2020)
All India Rank 127 in Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering
GATE Electronics & Communication
Top ~3 percentile (2018)
Qualified GATE in Electronics and Communication Engineering
First Prize - Robowar
NIT Jamshedpur (2017)
Technical festival robotics competition winner
Best Trainee Award
BSNL Hazaribagh (2013)
Recognized for excellence in vocational training program
Selected Publications
Shown here: first-author and co-first-author work. The full list is on the Publications page.
StickForStats: automated statistical assumption validation for reproducible computational biology
bioRxiv preprint. DOI: 10.64898/2026.06.15.732278. In peer review at BMC Bioinformatics.
Most biomedical articles print no statistical result checkable by recomputation: a pre-registered audit with a 20,000-article out-of-sample replication
Manuscript in preparation.
Development of an in silico platform (TRIPinRNA) for the identification of novel RNA intramolecular triple helices and their validation using biophysical techniques
Biochemistry (ACS) 64(1):250-265. DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.4c00334
Let's Connect
I'm always interested in discussing research collaborations, computational biology challenges, and opportunities in bioinformatics and genomics.