Overview

Dr. Kumar received his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India for his work on DNA repair in Mycobacteria and MSc in Animal Biotechnology from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India. Dr. Kumar joined New Jersey Medical School in 2011 after his postdoctoral training in anti-TB drug discovery with Prof. Clifton Barry at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. Current focus of his research is on developing pathway based screens to identify and validate novel druggable targets in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He uses biochemical, genetic, genomic, metabolomics and chemical biology tools to understand mechanism of action of novel anti-TB compounds aimed at developing screening hits into viable lead compounds geared towards targeting multi-drug resistant TB. He is also studying mechanisms underlying drug resistance and persistence in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Education

PHD, 2005, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Languages

Hindi

Relevant Publications

1. Sharma P, Jiang Q, Li SG, Ocke E, Tsotetsi K, Sukheja P, Singh P, Suryavanshi S, Morrison E, Thadkapally S, Russo R, Penalva-Lopez S, Cangialosi J, Sharma V, Johnson K, Sarathy JP, Nelson AM, Park S, Zimmerman MD, Alland D*, Kumar P*, Freundlich JS*. Evolution of Small Molecule Inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Menaquinone Biosynthesis. J Med Chem. 2025 Mar 13;68(5):5774-5803. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c03156. Epub 2025 Mar 4. PMID: 40035499. *Corresponding author.

3. Inoyama D, Awasthi D, Capodagli GC, Tsotetsi K, Sukheja P, Zimmerman M, Li SG, Jadhav R, Russo R, Wang X, Grady C, Richmann T, Shrestha R, Li L, Ahn YM, Ho Liang HP, Mina M, Park S, Perlin DS, Connell N, Dartois V, Alland D*, Neiditch MB*, Kumar P*, Freundlich JS' (2020). A Preclinical Candidate Targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis KasA. Cell Chem Biol. 2020 Mar 11; doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2020.02.007. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32197094. *Corresponding author.

2. Chitale P, Lemenze AD, Fogarty EC, Shah A, Grady C, Odom-Mabey AR, Johnson WE, Yang JH, Eren AM, Brosch R, Kumar P, Alland D. A comprehensive update to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv reference genome. Nat Commun. 2022 Nov 18;13(1):7068. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34853-x. PubMed PMID: 36400796; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9673877.

d. Sukheja P, Kumar P, Mittal N, Li SG, Singleton E, Russo R, Perryman AL, Shrestha R, Awasthi D, Husain S, Soteropoulos P, Brukh R, Connell N, Freundlich JS, Alland D. A Novel Small-Molecule Inhibitor of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Demethylmenaquinone Methyltransferase MenG Is Bactericidal to Both Growing and Nutritionally Deprived Persister Cells. mBio. 2017 Feb 14;8(1)PubMed PMID: 28196957; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5312080.

d. Wilson R, Kumar P, Parashar V, Vilch??ze C, Veyron-Churlet R, Freundlich JS, Barnes SW, Walker JR, Szymonifka MJ, Marchiano E, Shenai S, Colangeli R, Jacobs WR Jr, Neiditch MB, Kremer L, Alland D. Antituberculosis thiophenes define a requirement for Pks13 in mycolic acid biosynthesis. Nat Chem Biol. 2013 Aug;9(8):499-506. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3720791.

c. Kumar P, Capodagli GC, Awasthi D, Shrestha R, Maharaja K, Sukheja P, Li SG, Inoyama D, Zimmerman M, Ho Liang HP, Sarathy J, Mina M, Rasic G, Russo R, Perryman AL, Richmann T, Gupta A, Singleton E, Verma S, Husain S, Soteropoulos P, Wang Z, Morris R, Porter G, Agnihotri G, Salgame P, Ekins S, Rhee KY, Connell N, Dartois V, Neiditch MB, Freundlich JS, Alland D. Synergistic Lethality of a Binary Inhibitor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis KasA. mBio. 2018 Dec 18;9(6)PubMed PMID: 30563908; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6299220.

Course List

TIII5160Q

Tuberculosis and NTM: discovering new drugs, novel targets, understanding resistance and tolerance

Dr. Kumar works on 1) Discovery and development of new drugs with novel mechanisms of action in
Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The lab focuses on early-stage drug discovery, development of novel
pathway and condition-specific drug screens, performing screening, identifying new hits, finding their
mechanism of action and developing them into viable preclinical leads in collaborations with other
expert laboratoring utilizing all hit to lead tools. 2). Understanding mechanisms of drug tolerance and
resistance in Mtb. 3) Developing new therapeutics for non-tubercular mycobacterium.