Rakesh Kumar's Biography

Rakesh Kumar, Distinguished Professor and National Chair in Cancer Research, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology

Professor Rakesh Kumar is a Distinguished Professor and National Chair in Cancer Research at the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology in Trivendrum, and holds an adjunct professorship at the Baylor College of Medicine as well as in several leading Institutions in USA. Dr. Kumar received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and had faculty positions at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Penn State University, and MD Anderson Cancer Center before he moved to George Washington University as the Chair of Biochemistry department. Dr. Kumar has had been holding endowed professorships and chair positions from 2001 through 2014 as well as a rich administrative experience as a Department Vice Chair and Chair during this time.
Dr. Kumar is an internationally recognized cancer biologist with a focus on cancer genomics and chromatin remodeling in physiological and disease conditions with holds a h-index 86 and over 27,000 citations as of May 2017. His laboratory continues to provide novel insights into the significance of cytoskeleton and chromatin remodeling - as two arms of phenotypic signaling - during the progression of women’s cancer using physiologically relevant models and tools from molecular biology, genetics, proteogenomics, epigenetics, computational bioinformatics, and emerging platform based technologies. Dr. Kumar’s work has earned 16 Cover Illustrations in the major Cancer journals. He has received several awards and honors for his research work. Dr. Kumar has authored about 300 original research papers, invited reviews in leading scientific journals, and he has served as Editor for 6 Books/Volumes in cancer signaling and therapeutics. Prof. Kumar has trained over 61 fellows and students, and shared his knowledge by delivering about 248 invited lectures at academic institutions and national and international meetings and symposiums. He serves on the editorial board of several leading cancer and biochemical journals.