M.N.V. Ravi Kumar

Dr. Kumar is the founding director of CCBM. He is the Distinguished University Research Professor for Bioscience and Medicine in the College of Community Health Sciences. He is intrinsically motivated, to efficiently overcome immunological barriers for enhanced drug delivery leading to improvised outcomes in immuno-inflammatory diseases.  He often learns from his own mistakes as well as gaps in drug delivery literature. He appreciates the power of thinking differently and convergence. Four NIH R01s currently support Dr. Kumar’s lab (http://thekumarlab.ua.edu/).

Representative Publications

  1. Nanoparticles that do not compete with endogenous ligands–molecular characterization in vitro, acute safety in canine, and interspecies pharmacokinetics modeling to humans, D. Zou, M. Arora, R. Ganugula, M. Kumar, E. M. Scott, D. Shah, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. J. Control. Release 332, 64-73, 2021.
  2. Systemic anti-inflammatory therapy aided by double-headed nanoparticles in a canine model of acute intraocular inflammation, R. Ganugula, M. Arora, M. A. Lepiz, Y. Niu, B. K. Mallick, S. C. Pflugfelder, E. M. Scott, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. Sci. Adv. 6: eabb7878, 2020.
  3. A highly potent lymphatic system-targeting nanoparticle-cyclosporine prevents glomerulonephritis in mouse model of lupus, R. Ganugula, M. Arora, D. Zou, S. K. Agarwal, C. Mohan, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. Sci. Adv. 6: eabb3900, 2020.
  4. Oral delivery of nanoparticle urolithin A normalizes cellular stress and improves survival in mouse model of cisplatin-induced AKI, D. Zou, R. Ganugula, M. Arora, M. B. Nabity, D. Sheikh-Hamad and M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 317: F1255-F1264, 2019.
  5. Next generation precision-polyesters enabling optimization of ligand-receptor stoichiometry for modular drug delivery, R. Ganugula, M. Arora, P. Saini, M. Guada, and M. N.V. Ravi Kumar. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139: 7203-7216, 2017

Research Interests

The research in the Kumar-lab has advanced the fundamental understanding of receptor-mediated drug delivery across biological barriers. This research led to the development of a) nanoparticles that do not compete with endogenous ligands and b) precision polyesters for optimizing ligand-receptor stoichiometry for maximizing transport efficiency. Pioneering research performed by the Kumar-lab has led to the development of the next generation of drug delivery technologies and their application to human health and diseases.