Sanjay Kumar Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering Faculty Scientist, Physical Biosciences Division, LBNL 274A Stanley Hall mailcode: 1762 (510) 643-0787 fax: (510) 642-5835 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it http://kumarlab.berkeley.edu/

Joined the UC Berkeley Faculty in 2004

Research Interests

Macromolecular basis of cell shape, mechanics, and adhesion; materials science of proteins.

Education

1996   B.S., University of Minnesota, Chemical Engineering

2003   Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, Molecular Biophysics

2003   M.D., Johns Hopkins University

Major Awards

1992-1996 National Merit Scholarship, University of Minnesota.

1994 Outstanding Sophomore Award, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota.

1995 Charles S. Mann Outstanding Junior Award and Dow Corning Scholarship, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota.

1995 Peat Marwick Award, Golden Key National Honor Society, University of Minnesota.

1995 Tau Beta Pi (National Engineering Honor Society).

1996-2003 NIH Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship.

2000 Outstanding Young Investigator Award, Chesapeake Society for Microscopy Annual Poster Meeting.

2000 First Place, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine Graduate Student Research Forum.

2004-2005 National Research Service Award, National Institutes of Health (NINDS).

2004 Poster Oral Presentation Contest and Travel Award, Gordon Research Conference on Intermediate Filaments.

2006-2009 Beckman Young Investigator Award, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

2007 Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising, UCSF/UC Berkeley Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering

2008 Hellman Family Faculty Award, UC Berkeley

2008-2013: NIH Director's New Innovator Award

2009: Outstanding Teaching Award (by student vote), Berkeley Bioengineering Honor Society2009: Kavli Fellow, NAS/CAS Chinese-American Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium

2009:  Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Army Research Office

Professional Experience

2003-2005    NIH Research Fellow, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School

2005-present Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley

2006-present Faculty Scientist, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Selected Publications

S. Kumar, I. Z. Maxwell, A. Heisterkamp, T. R. Polte, T. P. Lele, M. Salanga, E. Mazur, and D. E. Ingber (2006). Viscoelastic retraction of single living stress fibers and its impact on cell shape, cytoskeletal organization, and extracellular matrix mechanics. Biophysical Journal 90: 3762-3773.

C. P. Brangwynne, F. C. MacKintosh, S. Kumar, N. A. Geisse, J. Talbot, L. Mahadevan, K. K. Parker, D. E. Ingber, and D. A. Weitz (2006). Microtubules can bear enhanced compressive loads in living cells because of lateral reinforcement. Journal of Cell Biology 173: 733-741.

T. P. Lele and S. Kumar (2007). Brushes, cables, and anchors: Recent insights into multiscale assembly and mechanics of cellular structural networks. Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics 47: 348-360.

M. G. Chown and S. Kumar (2007). Imaging and manipulating the structural machinery of living cells on the micro- and nanoscale. International Journal of Nanomedicine 2: 1-12.

R. J. Mannix*, S. Kumar*, F. Cassiola, M. Montoya-Zavala, E. Feinstein, M. Prentiss, and D. E. Ingber (2008). Nanomagnetic actuation of receptor-mediated signal transduction. Nature Nanotechnology 3: 36-40 [*equal contribution].

R. G. Thakar, M. G. Chown, A. Patel, L. Peng, S. Kumar, and T. A . Desai (2008). Contractility-dependent modulation of cell proliferation and adhesion by microtopographical cues. Small 4: 1416-1424.

S. Kumar and V. M. Weaver (2009).  Mechanics, malignancy, and metastasis: The force journey of a tumor cell.  Cancer and Metastasis  Reviews 28: 113-127.

T. A. Ulrich, E. M. de Juan Pardo, and S. Kumar (2009). The mechanical rigidity of the extracellular matrix regulates the structure, motility, and proliferation of glioma cells.  Cancer Research 69: 4167-4174. 

S. Sen and S. Kumar (2009).  Cellular-matrix de-adhesion dynamics reflect contractile mechanics.  Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering 2: 218-230.

D. J. D'Sa, E. M. De Juan Pardo, R. Rivas-Astiz, S. Sen, and S. Kumar (2009). High-throughput indentational elasticity measurements of hydrogel extracellular matrix substrates.  Applied Physics Letters 95: 63701 1-3.

A. J. Keung, K. E. Healy, S. Kumar, and D. V. Schaffer (2009). Biophysics and dynamics of natural and engineered stem cell microenvironments.  Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Systems Biology and Medicine (in press).

S. Sen and S. Kumar (2009).  Combining mechanical and optical approaches to dissect cellular mechanobiology.  Journal of Biomechanics (in press).

T. A. Ulrich, A. Jain, K. Tanner, J. L. MacKay, and S. Kumar.  Probing cellular mechanobiology in three-dimensional culture with collagen-agarose matrices.  Biomaterials (in press).