PROFILE PREVIEW

DR. AJAY KUMAR, Ph.D. Life Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar  

Senior Research Scientist
+91-129-2876488 
a.kumar [at] thsti [dot] res [dot] in
M.Sc. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
B.Sc. Biology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar

My research goals are focused towards understanding disease pathophysiology of liver-specific manifestation of metabolic dysregulation including diabetes, insulin resistance, etc. My group works towards designing and validating MASLD-related phenotypic assays and use them to screen small molecules as well as herbal extracts to identify candidates for lead development. Drug discovery efforts in my laboratory explore the possibility of delaying the disease progression through prophylactic efficacy studies in rodents or curing the disease through curative approach. My team is also interested in understanding molecular mechanisms of hepatic metabolic dysregulation and its effect on other vital body organs including kidney by working closely with interdisciplinary teams including computational and mathematical modelling experts. Overall goal is to enhance our understanding of fatty liver disease and generate better screening models to augment the ongoing efforts towards better and efficient drug discovery in NAFLD management. 

 

Previous Jobs/Trainings

  • Scientist B at Immunology group, ICGEB, New Delhi (2011-2016)

Delineating dynamics in Akt1 interactome during cell cycle progression

Association of interacting partners of Akt1 was delineated in Akt1 overexpressing HEK293T cell line and quantified as the cell progressed through different stages of cell cycle using SILAC method using ABSCIEX 5600 Triple-TOF mass spectrometer(PMID: 28243621, PMID: 29358593, PMID: 28603765, PMID: 29720254).

 

Time dependent Host response to Mtb infection

PMA differentiated THP1 cells were infected with different laboratory and clinical strains of mycobacterium to decipher the temporal dynamics in host proteomic/meatbolomic response. 

BONCAT approach together with labeled (SILAC) as well as label-free (iTRAQ/SWATH) methods were used to specifically target newly translated host proteome and secretome in response to infection using ABSCIEX 5600 Triple-TOF mass spectrometer  (PMID: 27672675, PMID: 32455206).

Time dependent diversity in dynamics of THP1 proteome/metabolome was captured using SWATH mass spectrometry from the infected cells (PMID: 33659582, PMID: 33595587).

  • Research Scientist at Immunology Group, ICGEB, New Delhi (2010-2011)

 

2024

  1. Mutagenic primer-based novel multiplex PCR-RFLP technique to genotype BECN1 SNPs rs10512488 and rs11552192. Molecular Biology Reports (DOI: 10.1007/s11033-024-09277-z).

2023

  1. Pharmacological evaluations of select herbal extracts on TLR7/8-induced cytokine and chemokine production in macrophage-like cells. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology (DOI: 10.35248/2161-1459.23.13.374).
  2. Temporal profiling of host proteome against different M. tuberculosis strains reveals delayed epigenetic orchestration. Microorganisms (doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11122998)
  3. Herbal Constituents of AYUSH-64 Formulation Modulate Release of Cytokines in TLR7/8-Induced Macrophage-Like Cells. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology (DOI: 10.35248/2161-1459.23.13.394).

2021

  1. Saroglitazar and Hepano treatment offers protection against high fat high fructose diet induced obesity, insulin resistance and steatosis by modulating various class of hepatic and circulating lipids. Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy (doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2021.112357)
  2. Genome scale metabolic model driven strategy to delineate host response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Molecular Omics (doi: 10.1039/d0mo00138d)
  3. THP1 proteomics data in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Data in Brief (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.106803)

2020

  1. Effect of delay in transportation of extracellular glucose into cardiomyocytes under diabetic condition: A study through mathematical model. Journal of Biological Physics. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10867-020-09551-8)

  2. c.29C>T polymorphism in the TGF-β1 gene correlates with increased risk of End Stage Renal Disease: original study and meta-analysis. Meta Gene (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mgene.2020.100703)

  3. HyperQuant – a computational pipeline for higher order multiplexed quantitative proteomics. ACS Omega (https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c00515)

2019

  1. Outlining the Grb2 Interactome and its Interacting Partners in HEK293 cells in Absence and Presence of Epidermal Growth Factor. Data in Brief (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2019.104082)

  2. Protective effect of high levels of TGF-β1 cytokine and its corresponding allele at C-509T locus in Punjabi ESRD population. Meta Gene (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mgene.2019.100587)

2018

  1. Rb interactome data and its modulations during cell cycle progression in HEK 293 cells. Data in Brief (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2018.01.045)

  2. Concurrent interactome and metabolome analysis reveals role of AKT1 in central carbon metabolism. BMC Research Notes (https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-018-3364-z)

  3. Defining the Akt1 interactome and its role in regulating the cell cycle. Scientific Reports (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-19689-0)

2017

  1. Restoring calcium homeostasis in diabetic cardiomyocytes: An investigation through mathematical modelling. Molecular BioSystems (https://doi.org/10.1039/c7mb00264e)

  2. Dataset to delineate changes in association between Akt1 and its interacting partners as a function of active state of Akt1 protein. Data in Brief (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2017.05.040)

  3. Defining the Akt1 Interactome Data and Delineating Alterations in its Composition as a function of Cell Cycle Progression. Data in Brief (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2017.02.018)

2016

  1. Dataset generated using hyperplexing and click chemistry to monitor temporal dynamics of newly synthesized macrophage secretome post infection by mycobacterial strains. Data in Brief (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2016.08.055)

2015

  1. M235T polymorphism in the AGT gene and A/GI8-83 substitution in the REN gene correlate with end stage renal disease. Nephron (https://doi.org/10.1159/000370074)

2014

  1. Association of tumor necrosis factor-alpha -308 G>A polymorphism with rheumatoid arthritis in two north Indian cohorts. Archives of Rheumatology 29: 241- 249

  2. Ajay Kumar, Vikas Gupta, Manoj Chaudhary, Arvinder Singh, Prabodh K Sehajpal (2014) Depleted TGF-β1 levels in end stage renal disease patients from North India. Gene 534: 440-443

2012

  1. Genomic Diversity and Affinities in population groups of North West India: An analysis of Alu insertion and a single nucleotide polymorphism. Gene 511: 293–299.

2008

  1. Tumor Necrosis Factor-α and Transforming growth factor-β1 polymorphisms in Bronchial Asthma. Indian Journal of Medical Sciences 62: 323-330.

2007

  1. Transforming Growth factor-β1 C-509T promoter polymorphism in End Stage Renal Disease. ICFAI Journal of Biotechnology 1: 29-36.

  2. Transforming Growth Factor-beta1 gene polymorphism in tuberculosis patients. International Journal of Human Genetics 7: 249-252

2006

  1. Association study of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Gene Ins/Del polymorphism with hypertension in Punjabi population. International Journal of Human Genetics 6: 317- 321

  2. Effect of Drug therapy on transforming growth factor-β1 levels in end stage renal disease patients. Journal of Punjab Academy of Sciences 3: 1-6

  3. Angiotensin converting enzyme gene Insertion/Deletion polymorphism in Type 2 Diabetic (T2DM) patients from Punjab. Journal of Punjab Academy of Sciences 3: 7-12

2005

  1. Angiotensin-I converting enzyme I/D polymorphism and Diabetic nephropathy in North India. International Journal of Human Genetics 5: 279-283

    • A Herbal Composition from Premna herbacea, useful for prevention of obesity and type 2 diabetes and a method for its extraction. Date of Filing the Patent – 07/12/2018; Indian Patent Application Number – 201831046382; Publication Date (U/S 11A) – 25/01/2019; Inventors - NC Talukdar, Sanjay K Banerjee, Ajay Kumar et al.
    • Method of hyperplexing in mass spectrometry to elucidate temporal dynamics of proteome. (Ref No. 201611029904) Inventors – Ajay Kumar, Shilpa Jamwal, Suruchi Aggarwal, Kanury VS Rao, Amit Kumar Yadav.

Ongoing Projects

  • In Vitro and In Vivo Modeling Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease using Dietary Carbohydrates and Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals
  • Optimization and development of a small molecule as a pre-clinical drug lead for NASH

  • Travel grant awarded by Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad, India to attend EMBL course on “Quantitative Proteomics: Strategies and Tools to Probe Biology” organized by European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) at EMBL headquarters, Heidelberg, Germany from 19th – 23rd June, 2017. 

  • Travel grant awarded by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India to attend European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Practical course on “Gene Expression Analysis in Diagnostic Medicine” held at St. Luke’s Medical Centre, Quezon City, Philippines from 17th-26th September, 2006.

  • Travel Grant awarded by National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, India, to attend International Symposium on human origins and genetics entitled “Genes, Evolution and Complex diseases” held at Bangalore, Indiafrom 17th-19th February, 2005.


MS. MAHIMA TIWARI
PH.D STUDENT

Present Lab Members

Deepika Tuli (Technical Officer-I)

Mahima Tiwari (PhD Student)

 

Past Lab Members

Dr. Alka Kaushal (Research Associate)

Surinder Kumar (Project Fellow)

Pooja Chaudhary (Project Fellow)

Dr. Anvita Chaudhary (Senior Research Fellow)

Sumedha Mukhi (Project Fellow)

Dr. Manisha Dagar (Research Associate)

Roshan Kumar (Senior Technical Officer)

Anshita (Project Fellow)

Vidhi Kaushik (Project Fellow)

Lavaniya Nagrath (Project Fellow)

 

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