Dr. Kumar is a Professor at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, since January 14, 2021. [Legal Name: (First) Ravikumar (Middle) Nagavenkata (Last) Majeti]
Dr. Kumar is known for his significant contributions to the field of rationale design of polyesters and their application to nanomedicines through the authorship of over 100 peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar). Dr. Kumar was the first to propose and demonstrate 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, intraocular inflammation in rodent and canine models respectively. His work on the next generation nanosystems has advanced fundamental understanding of GIT-blood and other biological barriers and has led to patentable technologies. These technologies not only allow product life cycle extension, but also can minimize attrition rates if applied early in the drug discovery. His fundamental platform has allowed active collaborations with others across many fields, e.g., comparative medicine (veterinarians), opioid abuse (psychologists), HIV (immunologists), kidney dysfunction (nephrologists), obesity (nutritionists), formulations of NCEs (medicinal chemists) that lead several high impact publications. He runs a productive laboratory, received extramural grants, generated high quality publications and patentable technologies, and supervised a balanced group that includes graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research faculty and undergraduate students.
Dr. Kumar's research has won him several awards including the Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists (2007); Tom Gibson Memorial Award by British Society of Plastic Surgeons & the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (2008); British Pharmaceutical Conference Science Medal (2009); T. Nagai outstanding researcher advisor by the CRS (2018); Distinguished Scientist Award of the International Journal of Nanomedicine (2020); Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize (AvH Foundation, Germany). He is elected a Fellow, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in 2018; Elected a Foreign Fellow, European Academy of Sciences (EurASc) in 2020; Elected a Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2020; Elected a Foreign Member of Academia Europaea (AE) in 2021. He features on The Medicine Maker ‘Power List 20 for 2021’.
