Faculty Profile

Fields of Study

Molecular and Cell Biology, Functional Genomics

Areas of Focus

Biochemistry
Cell Biology

Research Interest

Research applies methods in functional genomics to understand eukaryotic cell biology.

About Anuj Kumar

My research employs methods in functional genomics and proteomics to investigate important questions in eukaryotic cell / molecular biology. Specifically, I use the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to study conserved pathways mediating cell cycle progression and cell polarity establishment. These pathways represent an effective eukaryotic model of signaling networks germane to cancer research, encompassing yeast orthologs of known oncogenes and tumor suppressors.  Currently, my research entails a "system-wide" approach to the study of a multi-pathway process wherein strains of budding yeast form invasive filaments called pseudohyphae. As highly similar processes of filament formation are essential to the virulence of many pathogenic fungi, this study holds translational/clinical (as well as basic science) relevance. Additional projects are available in the lab incorporating genomic approaches to the analysis of the eukaryotic cell cycle.

Dr. Kumar received his PhD in the biomedical sciences from Wright State University before pursuing postdoctoral training in Michael Snyder's lab at Yale University. While at Yale, Dr. Kumar was a postdoctoral fellow of the American Cancer Society and a Leslie Warner Fellow in cancer research. Since joining the University of Michigan, Dr. Kumar has been named as a Biological Scholar and is a Research Assistant Professor in the Life Sciences Institute.

Publications

Patury, S., Geda, P., Dobry, C.J., Kumar, A., and Gestwicki, J.E. (2009). "Conditional Nuclear Import and Export of Yeast Proteins Using a Chemical Inducer of Dimerization." Cell Biochem. Biophys. 53: 127-134. Read Publication.

Kumar, A. (2009). "An overview of nested genes in eukaryotic genomes." Eukaryotic Cell 8: 1321-9. Read Publication.

Bharucha, N., Ma, J., Dobry, C.J., Lawson, S.K., Yang, Z., and Kumar, A. (2008). "Analysis of the yeast kinome reveals a network of regulated protein localization during filamentous growth." Mol. Biol. Cell 19(7):2708-17. Read Publication.

Jin, R. and Kumar, A. (2008). "Might as well jump: Transposons as tools for functional genomics." DNA Transposable Elements Editors: Kaito Yoshida and Miyu Aoki. Nova Publishers.

Geda, P., Patury, S., Ma, J., Bharucha, N., Dobry, C.J., Lawson, S.K., Gestwicki, J.E., and Kumar, A. (2008). "A Small Molecule-Directed Approach to Control Protein Localization and Function." Yeast 25: 577-594. Read Publication.

Gestwicki, J.E. and Kumar, A. (2008). "Two and three hybrid systems." Encyclopedia of Chemical Biology p615-629.

Ma, J., Bharucha, N., Dobry, C.J., Frisch, R.L., Lawson, S., and Kumar, A. (2008). "Localization of autophagy-related proteins in yeast using a versatile plasmid-based resource of fluorescent protein fusions." Autophagy 4: 792-800. Read Publication.

Ma, J., Dobry, C.J., Krysan, D.J., and Kumar, A. (2008). "An unconventional genomic architecture in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae masks the nested antisense gene NAG1." Eukaryotic Cell 7: 1289-1298. (Featured on the cover and in the ASM News publication Microbe). Read Publication.

Jin, R., Dobry, C.J., McCown, P., and Kumar, A. (2008). "Large-Scale Analysis of Yeast Filamentous Growth by Systematic Gene Disruption and Overexpression." Mol. Biol. Cell 19:284-296. Read Publication.

Ma, J., Jin, R., Dobry, C.J., Lawson, S.K., and Kumar, A. (2007). "Overexpression of Autophagy-Related Genes Inhibits Yeast Filamentous Growth." Autophagy 3: 604-9. Read Publication.

Wiwatwattana, N. , Landau, C.M., Cope, G.J., Harp, G.A., and Kumar, A. (2007). "Organelle DB: an updated resource of eukaryotic  protein localization and function." Nucleic Acids Res. 35: D810-814. Read Publication.

Ma, J., Jin, R., Jia, X., Dobry, C.J., Wang, L., Reggiori, F., Zhu, J., and Kumar, A. (2007). "An interrelationship between autophagy and filamentous growth in budding yeast." Genetics 177: 205-214. Read Publication.

Bharucha, N. and Kumar, A. (2007). "Yeast Genomics and Drug Target Identification." Combinatorial Chemistry and High-Throughput Screening 10: 618-634. (featured on the cover) Read Publication.

Kumar, A. (2007). "Multipurpose Transposon-Insertion Libraries for Large-Scale Analysis of Gene Function in Yeast." In: "Methods in Molecular Biology" series Gene Essentiality at Genome Scale: Protocols and Bioinformatics Humana Press. Read Publication.

Seringhaus, M., Kumar, A., Hartigan, J., Snyder, M., & Gerstein, M (2006). "Genomic analysis of insertion behavior and target specificity of mini-Tn7 and Tn3 transposons in Saccharomyces cerevisiae." Nucleic Acids Research 34: E57.

Klionsky, D.J., and Kumar, A. (2006). "Systems Biology Approach to Learning Autophagy." Autophagy 2: 12-23. Read Publication.

Kumar, A. (2005). "Teaching Systems Biology: An Active Learning Approach." Cell Biol. Education 4: 323-329. Read Publication.

Wiwatwattana, N. and Kumar, A (2005). "Organelle DB: a cross-species database of protein localization and function." Nucleic Acids Res 33: D598-D604.

Kumar, A.*, Seringhaus, M., Biery, M.C., Sarnovsky, R.J., Umansky, L., Piccirillo, S., Heidtman, M., Cheung, K.-H., Dobry, C.J., Gerstein, M.B., Craig, N.L., and Snyder, M (2004). "Large Scale Mutagenesis of the Yeast Genome Using a Tn7-Derived Multipurpose Transposon." Genome Res. 14: 1975-1986.

Kumar, A (2003). "Where do all the proteins go?" Drug Discovery Today, TARGETS: Innovations in Genomics and Proteomics 2: 237-244.

Kumar, A., Agarwal, S., Heyman, J.A., Matson, S., Heidtman, M., Piccirillo, S., Umansky, L., Drawid, A., Jansen, R., Liu, Y., Cheung, K.-H., Miller, P., Gerstein, M., Roeder, G.S., and Snyder, M (2002). "Subcellular localization of the yeast proteome." Genes & Dev. 16: 707-719. Featured on the Cover

Kumar, A. and Snyder, M (2002). "Protein complexes take the bait." Nature 415: 123-124.

Kumar, A., Harrison, P.M., Cheung, K.-H., Lan, N., Echols, N., Bertone, P., Miller, P., Gerstein, M.B. and Snyder, M (2002). "An integrated approach for finding overlooked genes in yeast." Nature Biotechnology 14: 58-63.

Kumar, A., Cheung, K.-H., Tosches, N., Masiar, P., Liu, Y., Miller, P. and Snyder, M (2002). "The TRIPLES database: a community resource for yeast molecular biology." Nucleic Acids Res. 30: 73-75.

Kumar, A., Vidan, S. and Snyder, M (2002). "Insertional mutagenesis: transposon-insertion libraries as mutagens in yeast." Guide to Yeast Genetics and Molecular and Cell Biology, Parts B and C. C. Guthrie and G.R. Fink, Methods Enzymol 350: 219-229.

Kumar, A. and Snyder, M (2001). "Emerging technologies in yeast genomics." Nature Rev. Genetics 2: 302-312.

Kumar, A., Cheung, K.-H., Ross-Macdonald, P., Coelho, P.S.R., Miller, P. and Snyder, M (2000). "TRIPLES: a database of gene function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae." Nucleic Acids Res. 28: 81-84.

Kumar, A., des Etages, S.A., Coelho, P.S.R., Roeder, G.S. and Snyder, M (2000). "High-throughput methods for the large-scale analysis of gene function by transposon tagging." Methods Enzymol. 328: 550-574.

Ross-Macdonald, P., Coelho, P., Roemer, T., Agarwal, S., Kumar, A., Cheung, K.-H., Jansen, R., A., Symoniatis, D., Umansky, L., Nelson, K., Iwasaki, H., Hager, K., Gerstein, M., Miller, P., Roeder, G.S., and Snyder, M (1999). "Large-scale analysis of the yeast genome by transposon tagging and gene disruption." Nature 402: 413-418.

Kumar, A. and Paietta, J.V (1998). "A new role for the F-box motif: gene regulation within the Neurospora crassa sulfur control network." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 2417-2422.