Atharva Bhagwat

PhD Student, CMSB Program at University of Pittsburgh

I am a PhD student in the Cell Molecular and Systems Biology (CMSB) Program at the University of Pittsburgh with interests in computational biology, genomics, and machine learning. Previously, I was a Research Assistant in the Tsankov Lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where I studied lung aging and cellular senescence using 10x Genomics Xenium spatial transcriptomics.

Before transitioning to academic research, I worked as a Machine Learning Engineer, developing anomaly detection and automation solutions for the textile industry.

Education

Aug. 2026 — Present

Ph.D. in Cell Molecular and Systems Biology (CMSB)

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh

Sept. 2021 — May 2023

M.S. in Computational Science

New York University, New York

GPA: 3.63/4.00

Aug. 2016 — May 2020

B.E. in Computer Engineering

Pune Institute of Computer Technology, Pune, India

Thesis: Video Summarization

Advisor: Asst. Prof. A. Chandorkar

GPA: 8.45/10

Thesis Slides Seminar

Work Experience

June 2023 — June 2026

Tsankov Lab at Mount Sinai, New York

Associate Computational Researcher

Jan. 2023 — May 2023

Tsankov Lab at Mount Sinai, New York

Associate Computational Researcher Intern

May 2022 — Aug. 2022

Tsankov Lab at Mount Sinai, New York

Associate Computational Researcher Intern

July 2020 — May 2021

ResoluteAI.in, Bangalore, India

Machine Learning Engineer

Publications

Cellular hallmarks and aging clock of the human lung parenchyma

Ke Xu* , Grace S. Kim* , Atharva Bhagwat* , Sepideh E. Meimand , Vignesh V. Venkat , Giang Pham , Jing Zhang , Jamshid Abdul-Ghafar , Mohamad D. Bairakdar , Komal Dolasia , Isha R. Sahasrabudhe , Alter Klausner , Yijia Chen , Thinh T. Nguyen , Bruno Giotti , Rachel Brody , So-Jin Kim , Jaymin J. Kathiriya , Daniel J. Puleston , Patty J. Lee , Alexander M. Tsankov

Nature Communications. 2026.

PDF *Authors contributed equally

A cellular and spatial atlas of TP53-associated tissue remodeling defines a multicellular tumor ecosystem in lung adenocarcinoma

William Zhao* , Thinh T. Nguyen* , Atharva Bhagwat* , Akhil Kumar* , Bruno Giotti* , Benjamin Kepecs , Jason L. Weirather , Navin R. Mahadevan , Asa Segerstolpe , Komal Dolasia , Jamshid Abdul-Ghafar , Naomi R. Besson , Stephanie M. Jones , Brian Y. Soong , Chendi Li , Sebastien Vigneau , Michal Slyper , Isaac Wakiro , Mei-Ju Su , Karla Helvie , Allison Frangieh , Judit Jane-Valbuena , Orr Ashenberg , Mark Awad , Asaf Rotem , Raphael Bueno , Orit Rozenblatt-Rosen , Kathleen Pfaff , Scott Rodig , Aaron N. Hata , Aviv Regev , Bruce E. Johnson , Alexander M. Tsankov

Nature Cancer. 2025.

PDF *Authors contributed equally

Single cell profiling of human airway identifies tuft-ionocyte progenitor cells displaying cytokine-dependent differentiation bias in vitro

Viral S. Shah* , Avinash Waghray* , Brian Lin* , Atharva Bhagwat* , Isha Monga* , Michal Slyper* , Bruno Giotti* , Sunghyun Kim , Dawei Sun , Ke Xu , Eric Park , Mohamad Bairakdar , Jiajie Xu , Julia Waldman , Danielle Dionne , Lan T. Nguyen , Wendy Lou , Peiwen Cai , Christoph Muus , Jiawei Sun , Manalee V. Surve , Lujia Cha Cha Yang , Orit Rozenblatt-Rosen , Toni M. Delorey , Srinivas Vinod Saladi , Aviv Regev , Jayaraj Rajagopal , Alexander M. Tsankov

Nature Communications. 2025.

PDF *Authors contributed equally

Single-Cell View of Tumor Microenvironment Gradients in Pleural Mesothelioma

Bruno Giotti , Komal Dolasia , William Zhao , Peiwen Cai , Robert Sweeney , Elliot Merritt , Evgeny Kiner , Grace S. Kim , Atharva Bhagwat , Thinh Nguyen , Samarth Hegde , Bailey G. Fitzgerald , Sanjana Shroff , Travis Dawson , Monica Garcia-Barros , Jamshid Abdul-Ghafar , Rachel Chen , Sacha Gnjatic , Alan Soto , Rachel Brody , Seunghee Kim-Schulze , Zhihong Chen , Kristin G. Beaumont , Miriam Merad , Raja M. Flores , Robert P. Sebra , Amir Horowitz , Thomas U. Marron , Anna Tocheva , Andrea Wolf , Alexander M. Tsankov

Cancer Discovery. 2024.

PDF

Posters

Cellular hallmarks and aging clock of the human lung parenchyma

SenNet Fall 2025 Meeting, 89th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology: Senescence & Aging, The Festival of Genomics and BioData 2025 Boston. 2025.