Rate My Professor Arnab Barik

Arnab Barik serves as Assistant Professor at the Center for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science. He earned a B.Tech in Biotechnology from SRM University, Chennai, and a PhD in Neuroscience from the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, where his doctoral research examined the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuromuscular junction development and maintenance under the supervision of Dr. Lin Mei. He then completed postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Alexander Chesler at the National Institutes of Health, during which he identified a specific population of neurons in the parabrachial nucleus essential for generating affective responses to pain. In 2020, Barik joined the Center for Neuroscience at the Indian Institute of Science as principal investigator. His laboratory investigates the molecules, cells, and circuits that drive responses to pain and itch, employing genetic and behavioral techniques in mice to map neural pathways and examine maladaptive mechanisms in chronic conditions.

Barik holds additional appointments as Adjunct Faculty at TCG-CREST, CHINTA, and is a member of the EMBO Global Investigator Network. He is also a DBT-Wellcome India Alliance Intermediate Fellow. His research areas center on the neurobiology of pain and itch, with particular attention to brainstem and hypothalamic circuits involved in defensive behaviors, stress modulation, and affective-motivational aspects of somatosensation. Key publications include studies on spinoparabrachial circuits driving pain, intra-brainstem circuitry for pain-induced inhibition of itch, and stress-induced modulation of itch, appearing in journals such as Neuron, eLife, Cell Reports, and The Journal of Neuroscience. Barik contributes to the field through ongoing investigations into neural mechanisms underlying protective and pathologic sensory responses.