Dr Pawan Kumar
Dr Pawan Kumar
Post-doctoral researcher (2016-2018)
Pawan Kumar obtained his PhD in 2010 at Kurukshetra University (India) under the supervision of Professor Pawan K. Sharma. He was a visiting PhD student (2008-2009) at the University of Idaho (USA) in the labs of Professor Patrick J. Hrdlicka. His research was focused on developing new nucleotide monomers with improved biophysical profiles by combining sugar and nucleobase modifications. He also prepared a series of small heterocyclic molecules of potential medicinal interest. Following PhD he started his postdoctoral work in the group of Professor Poul Nielsen at the University of Southern Denmark (Denmark) where he developed an 11-mer DNA duplex with 12-Watson-Crick base pairs on the same backbone using double-headed nucleotides. Also an array of additional nucleobases in the major groove of a DNA duplex was obtained. Afterwards he joined Professor Ulf Diederichsen’s group at the University of Göttingen (Germany) as a Humboldt Fellow. His research focus was on understanding SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive-factor attachment receptor) proteins mediated membrane fusion by using peptide nucleic acid (PNA)/peptide hybrids. He then secured a Marie Curie fellowship for studying nucleic acid metabolism in living cells in the Brown Group. Pawan now works at Takeda in California on therapeutic oligonucleotides.