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M. N. V. Ravi Kumar

M. N. V. Ravi Kumar
M. N. V. Ravi Kumar, PhD

Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Contact

Texas A&M Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy
Mail Stop 1114 310B Reynolds Medical Building
College Station, TX 77843
mnvrkumar@tamu.edu
Phone: 979.436.0721
Fax: 979.845.8787

Education and Training

  • Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, (Formerly University of Roorkee), India PhD, Drug Delivery, 2000
  • Devi Ahilya Viswha Vidyalaya, India, Master of Science, Applied Chemistry, 1996
  • Nagarjuna University, India, Bachelor of Science, Physical Sciences, 1992

Research Interests

  • Dr. Kumar was first to propose and demonstrate a non-competitive active targeting nanosystems and its application to human health and diseases. Kumar-lab employed this platform in the treatment of difficult to treat diseases such as lupus, diabetes complications and intraocular inflammation in rodent and canine models respectively. His work has advanced fundamental understanding of blood-intestine and other biological barriers and has led to the development of two patents. These technologies have facilitated industry collaborations, as well as the formation of Startup Company by a venture building team. His fundamental platform has allowed active collaborations with others across many fields, e.g., addressing opioid abuse (with psychologists), HIV (with immunologists), kidney dysfunction (with nephrologists), obesity (with nutritionists) that lead several high impact publications. According to Google Scholar citation index, his work is cited 18,821 times and has an h-index of 42 (on 09/25/2020). Over the years, he has trained >50 researchers including 15 postdoctoral, 7 PhDs (including one medical doctor), 20 MS students. Dr. Kumar made seminal contributions to the following areas. The lab is currently funded by three NIH R01s (NEI, NIDDK and NIAID).
  • Dr. Kumar made seminal contributions to the following areas:
  • Autoimmune, inflammatory, infectious, and vascular disease conditions
  • Oral drug delivery platform technologies
  • Non-competitive active targeting strategies
  • Precision-polyesters for ligand-receptor stoichiometry optimization
  • Responsive delivery systems

Awards, Recognition and Service

  • Distinguished Scientist Award of the International Journal of Nanomedicine (Award Lecture)
  • Elected a Foreign Fellow, European Academy of Sciences (EurASc)
  • Elected a Fellow, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS)
  • T. Nagai (Controlled Release Society, USA) Outstanding Researcher Advisor, In recognition of excellent leadership and mentorship to Dr. Raghu Ganugula.
  • Named as the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faces of Toxicology (https://youtu.be/R4ZjUTCzO9M).
  • British Pharmaceutical Conference Science Medal. UK
  • Tom Gibson Memorial Award, British Society of Plastic Surgeons & the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, UK
  • Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), London.
  • Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Medal for Young Scientist. India
  • Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship, Germany.
  • Journal Editorial Board Memberships: a) Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; b) Polymers for Advanced Technologies; c) Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology; d) Cancer Nanotechnology; e) Therapeutic Delivery
  • Ad hoc Reviewer, NIH study sections and other International federal funding bodies

Representative Publications

  • Ganugula†, M. Arora†, M. A. Lepiz, Y. Niu, B. K. Mallick, S. C. Pflugfelder, E. M. Scott†, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. Systemic anti-inflammatory therapy aided by double-headed nanoparticles in a canine model of acute intraocular inflammation. Sci Adv 6: eabb7878, 2020 [†Equal Contribution]
  • Madison†, M. Arora†, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar, S. Eitan. Novel oral nanoparticle formulation of sustained release naloxone with mild withdrawal symptoms in a mouse model. ACS Chem.Neurosci. 13: 1955-1964, 2020.
  • Ganugula†, M. Arora†, D. Zou, S. K. Agarwal, C. Mohan, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. A highly potent lymphatic system-targeting nanoparticle-cyclosporine prevents glomerulonephritis in mouse model of lupus. Sci. Adv. 6: eabb3900, 2020. [†Equal Contribution]
  • Vitali, P. Bagri, J. M. Wessels, M. Arora, R. Ganugula, A. Parikh, T. Mandur, A. Felker, S. Garg, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar, C. Kaushic. Curcumin can decrease tissue inflammation and the severity of HSV-2 infection in the female reproductive mucosa. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 21: 337, 2020.
  • Zou, R. Ganugula, M. Arora, M. B. Nabity, D. Sheikh-Hamad and M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. Oral delivery of nanoparticle urolithin A normalizes cellular stress and improves survival in mouse model of cisplatin-induced. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 317: F1255-F1264, 2019 (Selected for APS Select award)
  • Arora†, R. Ganugula†, N. Kumar†, G. Kaur, J.-P. Pellois, P. Garg, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. Next-generation non-competitive nanosystems based on gambogic acid: in silico identification of transferrin receptor binding sites, regulatory shelf-stability and their preliminary safety in healthy rodents ACS Appl. Bio Mater. 2: 3532-3539, 2019 (Cover article) [†Equal Contribution]
  • Preez, J. Pahl, M. Arora, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar, L. Brown and S.K. Panchal. Low-dose curcumin nanoparticles normalise blood pressure in male wistar rats with diet-induced metabolic syndrome. Nutrients, 11: 1542, 2019.
  • Kaur†, M. Arora†, R. Ganugula† and M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. Double-headed nanosystems for oral drug delivery. Chem Comm. 55: 4761-4764, 2019 (Cover article, back cover) [†Equal Contribution]
  • Ganugula, M. Deng, M. Arora, H.-L. Pan and M. N. V. Ravi Kumar. Polyester nanoparticle encapsulation mitigates paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy. ACS Chem.Neurosci. 10: 1801-1812, 2019. (Cover article)
  • Yan, F. Zhou, W. Yang, X. Li, Q. Pan, Z. Shen, G. Han, A. Newell-Fugate, C. Wu, M. N. V. Ravi Kumar, Y. Xu, Y. Tian, K. Allred, C. Allred, Y. Sun, S. Guo. Estrogen improves insulin sensitivity suppressing hepatic glucose production via the transcription factor Foxo1. Diabetes 68: 291-304, 2019.
  • Guada, R. Ganugula, M. V. Vadhanam, and M. N. V. Ravi Kumar Urolithin A mitigates cisplatin- induced nephrotoxicity by inhibiting renal inflammation and apoptosis in an experimental rat model. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 363: 58-65, 2017. (Cover article)
  • Ganugula, M. Arora, and M. N.V. Ravi Kumar. Ex vivo rat eye model for investigating transport of next generation precision-polyester nanosystems. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9: 25668-25671, 2017.
  • Ganugula, M. Arora, P. Jaisamut, R. Wiwattanapatapee, H. G. Jørgensen, V. P. Venkatpurwar, B. Zhou, A. R. Hoffmann, S. Guo, and M. N. V. Ravi Kumar Nano-curcumin safely prevents streptozotocin-induced inflammation and apoptosis in pancreatic β-cells for effective management of type 1 diabetes mellitus Br. J. Pharmacol. 174: 2074-2084, 2017.
  • Ganugula†, M. Arora†, P. Saini†, M. Guada, and M. N.V. Ravi Kumar. Next generation precision-polyesters enabling optimization of ligand-receptor stoichiometry for modular drug delivery. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139: 7203-7216, 2017. (Cover article) [†Equal Contribution]
  • Ganugula, M. Arora, M. Guada, P. Saini and M. N.V. Ravi Kumar. Non-competitive active transport exploiting intestinal transferrin receptors for oral delivery of proteins by tunable nano-platform. ACS Macro Lett. 6: 161-164, 2017. (Cover article)

Representative Inventions

  • Polymer systems and their applications in diagnostics and drug delivery US Patent 10,780,175, Issue date: 09/22/2020.
  • Polymer/copolymer nanoparticles conjugated to gambogic Acid US Patent 10,786,465, Issue date: 09/29/2020