Pavan’s scientific expertise involves use of genomic technologies such as ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, biochemistry and quantitative behaviors assays such as aggression and sleep to understand mechanisms of animal development and experiential encoding in the brain. Pavan has investigated how the Hox protein Ubx, shapes body segments during Drosophila development using techniques such as ChIP-chip, biochemistry, microscopy and candidate gene knockdown. This work led to identification of regulatory codes by which Ubx selects its direct targets in developing imaginal discs of Drosophila.
His later work identified whole brain as well as cell type specific transcriptional and epigenetic changes in the Drosophila brain after subjecting flies to social isolation and social enrichment. His work also led to the development of a method called ‘mini-INTACT’ which facilitates epigenetic and transcriptional characterization of rare cell types from the brain, by reducing the required input tissue material by ~100-fold. Using mini-INTACT, he profiled dopaminergic neurons (<0.1% of adult neurons) by ChIP-seq and identified shifts in epigenetic landscape due to social isolation. He linked these epigenetic changes to gene expression changes of four transcription factors previously identified as activity-regulated genes, orthologs of vertebrate immediate early genes. Knockdown of these activity-regulated genes in dopaminergic neurons reduced the effects of social experience on sleep. This work enabled use of Drosophila for cell type specific behavioral epigenetics.