Krishna Kumar (born 1 November 1970) is an

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

whose research spans

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

chemical biology Chemical biology is a scientific discipline between the fields of chemistry and biology. The discipline involves the application of chemical techniques, analysis, and often small molecules produced through synthetic chemistry, to the study and m ...

bioorganic chemistry Bioorganic chemistry is a scientific discipline that combines organic chemistry and biochemistry. It is the branch of life science that deals with the study of biological processes using chemical methods. Protein and enzyme function are examples of ...

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

and

cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living an ...

. He is currently Robinson Professor of Chemistry and was also Chemistry Department Chair from 2006 to 2009; and from 2012 to 2018 at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

Career

Prior to Tufts University, he was at the

Scripps Research Institute Scripps Research is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institute has over 170 laboratories employing 2,100 scientists, tec ...

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and got his bachelor's degree in Chemistry with honors from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry (1996) from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

. Kumar has given proteins hyperstable

folding Fold, folding or foldable may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Fold'' (album), the debut release by Australian rock band Epicure * Fold (poker), in the game of poker, to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot *Abov ...

properties by inserting fluorinated amino acids into them. Recent studies by his research team have shown that fluorination of biologically active antimicrobial peptides is an effective strategy for improving their stability and antimicrobial therapeutic value. In addition to antibiotics, Kumar's work includes the design of fluorinated drug delivery systems using lipids as carriers, and potential cancer drugs and imaging agents. His laboratory has also invented methods for cell surface engineering and imaging of cancer cells with metastatic potential.

Awards, honors, affiliations and positions

* Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), 2018 * Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award, Tufts Graduate School of AS&E (2015) * Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2012 * Award for Excellence in the Chemical Sciences, Indian Society of Chemists and Biologists (2011)
Global Indus Technovator AwardMIT IBC
(2006) *Technology Investigation Award
Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center
(2005) *MIT

Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

TR100 The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by ''MIT Technology Review'' magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. at ''Technology Review'' with lists of winners at technologyreview.com ...

Award (2003) *DuPont Young Professor Award, E. I.

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

de Nemours & Co. (2003–2006) *NSF CAREER Award,

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

(2002–2007) *Guest Professor, Westfälische Wilhelms–Universität, Münster, Germany (2000) *Teaching with Technology (TTT) Fellow,
Academic Technology, Tufts U
(1999) *Professor of Chemistry,

(2006–present) *Chairman, Department of Chemistry,

(2006–2009; 2012–2018) *Member, Cancer Center, Tufts Medical Center *Visiting Scientist, Center for Cancer Research, MIT (2004–2005) *Adjunct Professor, Biomedical Engineering,

(2002–present) *Assistant and Associate Professor of Chemistry,

(1998–2005) *Vice President, Society of Fellows,

The Scripps Research Institute Scripps Research is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institute has over 170 laboratories employing 2,100 scientists, tec ...

(1996–98) *Sigma Xi Award for Excellence in Research, Sigma Xi Research Honor Society, 1995 *Chancellor of the Exchequer, St. Stephen's College, Delhi (1990–91)

Publications

Web of Science The Web of Science (WoS; previously known as Web of Knowledge) is a paid-access platform that provides (typically via the internet) access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedi ...

shows these as the 10 most cited publications: #Bilgiçer, B.; Fichera, A.; Kumar, K. "A Coiled Coil with a Fluorous Core."'' J. Am. Chem. Soc.'' 2001, 123, 4393-4399. Discussed by : "Fluorous Peptides." by Stu Borman, C&EN 2001, 79(20), 41-42; "Heart Cut" Chemical Innovation 2001, 31 (11), pp. 10.; "Steps Towards Nanotechnology" by Jeffrey Soreff, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM), IMM Report No. 26, 23 October 2001. #Bilgiçer, B.; Xing, X.; Kumar, K. "Programmed Self-Sorting of Coiled Coils with Leucine and Hexafluoroleucine Cores." ''J. Am. Chem. Soc.'' 2001, 123, 11815-11816. Discussed by: Science & Technology Roundup, C&EN 2001, 79 (49), p. 35. #Yoder, N. C.; Kumar, K. "Fluorinated Amino Acids in Protein Design and Engineering." Chem. Soc. Rev. 2002, 31, 335-341. #Bilgicer B, Kumar K "Synthesis and thermodynamic characterization of self-sorting coiled coils " ''

Tetrahedron In geometry, a tetrahedron (: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular Face (geometry), faces, six straight Edge (geometry), edges, and four vertex (geometry), vertices. The tet ...

'' 2002 58( 20) 4105-4112. # Bilgiçer, B.; Kumar, K. "De Novo Design of Defined Helical Bundles in Membrane Environments." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2004, 101, 15324-15329. #Myers, K. E.; Kumar, K. "Fluorophobic Acceleration of Diels-Alder Reactions." ''J. Am. Chem. Soc.'' 2000, 122, 12025-12026. #Xing, X.; Fichera, A.; Kumar, K. "A Novel Synthesis of Enantiomerically Pure 5,5,5,5',5',5'–Hexafluoroleucine." Org. Lett. 2001, 3, 1285-1286. #Meng, H.; Kumar, K. "Antimicrobial Activity and Protease Stability of Peptides Containing Fluorinated Amino Acids" ''J. Am. Chem. Soc.'' 2007, 129, 15615-15622. Discussed by: "Fluorous Peptides Get Ready to Heal" by Stephen Ritter, C&EN 2007, 85 (37), pp. 36–37; "Putting the "F" in peptides" by Randall C Willis; Drug Discovery News 2007, December. #Montanari V.; Kumar, K. "Just Add Water: A New Fluorous Capping Reagent for Facile Purification of Peptides Synthesized on the Solid Phase." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 9528-9529. #Wang P, Fichera A, Kumar K, et al. "Alternative translations of a single RNA message: An identity switch of (2S,3R)-4,4,4-trifluorovaline between valine and isoleucine codons " (2004)''Angewandte Chemie International Ed.'' 43 (28) 3664-3666.

References

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External links

a
Tufts University
a

a
Kumar Research Group, Tufts Chemistry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Krishna Indian organic chemists American people of Indian Tamil descent Living people Scripps Research Tufts University faculty Brown University Graduate School alumni 1970 births Scientists from Chennai Indian biochemists