Research Programs: Genetic Mechanisms of Cancer
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplantation

kumar036@umn.edu
612-626-2778 — office
612-626-5044 — lab
Preferred method of contact: e-mail

Dr. Kumar's cinical profile
(University of Minnesota Physicians Web site)

Dr. Kumar received his medical degree from the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College, Mumbai, India and his Ph.D. in Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Iowa. He then obtained his residency training in Pediatrics at the Mayo Clinic and conducted a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow transplantation at the University of Minnesota. For his fellowship research in Dr. John Kersey's laboratory, Kumar was awarded the William Kennedy research fellowship by the National Childhood Cancer Foundation. He received a Young Investigator award from the Children's Oncology Group in 2005 and was named the University Pediatric Foundation Scholar for 2006-07.

Research Interests

Understanding the biology of infant leukemia

Infant leukemia is most often a fatal disease, as opposed to leukemia in older children which is often curable. A vast majority of infant leukemias are associated with rearrangements of the MLL gene, which are also found in secondary leukemias that may occur in adults as a complication of therapy for another cancer. In the laboratory we are studying mouse models of MLL-rearranged leukemia to identify the biologic pathways that are required for the pathogenesis of leukemia. The ultimate goal is to develop therapies that would target such pathways.

Selected Publications

Yao Q, Nishiuchi R, Li Q, Kumar AR, Hudson WA, Kersey JH. FLT3- expressing leukemias are selectively sensitive to inhibitors of the molecular chaperone heat shock protein 90 through destabilization of signal transduction-associated kinases. Clin Cancer Res. 2003;9:4483-93.

Kumar AR, Wagner JE, Auerbach AD et al. Fatal hemorrhage from androgen-related hepatic adenoma after hematopoietic cell transplantation. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2004;26:16–18.

Kumar AR, Hudson WA, Chen W, Nishiuchi R, Yao Q, Kersey JH. Hoxa9 influences the phenotype but not the incidence of Mll-AF9 fusion gene leukemia. Blood 2004;103:1823-1828.

Chen W, Li Q, Hudson WA, Kumar A, Kirchhof N, Kersey JH. A murine Mll-AF4 knock-in model results in lymphoid and myeloid deregulation and hematological malignancy. Blood 2006;108:669-677.

White JG, Kumar AR, Hogan MJ. Gray platelet syndrome in a Somalian family. Platelets 2006;17:519-527.

Mehta PA, Davies SM, Kumar A, Devidas M, Lee S, Zamzow T, Elliott J, Villanueva J, Pullen J, Zewge Y, Filipovich A. Perforin polymorphism A91V and susceptibility to B-precursor childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a report from the Children's Oncology Group. Leukemia 2006;20:1539-1541.

Schults KA, Neglia JP, Smith AR, Ochs HD, Torgerson TR, Kuma AR. Familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in two brothers with x-linked agammaglobulinemia. Pediatr Blood Cancer (in press).