Metabolomics & Systems Biology

Biography

Dr. Alan Prem Kumar, Bsc., Msc., Ph.D. serves as Member of Scientific Advisory Board and Member of Business Development Advisory Board at GenoMed, Inc. Following his postdoctoral years, Dr. Kumar joined the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore as an independent Principal Investigator to continue on his expertise on nuclear receptor and cancer biology. From a commercialization perspective, he co-filed a patent on a new potent PPARgamma ligand for treatment of diabetes and cancer. Dr. Kumar has also successfully set up a Singapore-USA collaboration agreement (covering patent issues as well) for another 16 new derivatives drugs - activators and inhibitors of PPARgamma for treatment of diabetes and cancer, thence to a clinical trial here in Singapore. In addition, he has also set up research collaboration between NUS and his collaborator in the USA to identify new synthetic ligands for HNF4alpha and PPARdelta for translation into the clinic. Over the years, Dr. Kumar and his laboratory have forged several relationships with scientists in cancer research and with cancer advocacy groups in Singapore. Dr. Kumar then made a research focus switch from Microbiology to pursue Postdoctoral training in Cancer Research at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, California, USA with Dr. Wanda Reynolds. He was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship for his work on the role of nuclear receptors in the transcriptional regulation of human myeloperoxidase, a leukocyte enzyme implicated as causative agent in atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Kumar earned his BSc, MSc, and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University of North Texas, USA. From his Ph.D. work, he discovered a novel regulatory protein, PyrR for the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway in Pseudomonas.

Research Interest

Diabetes and cancer are common diseases among adults worldwide. New research shows that both hyperinsulinaemia and hyperglycemia, characteristics of type 2 diabetes, are major risk factors for a number of cancer-promotes tumor development. My area of research focuses on exploring the role of nuclear receptors, such as PPARs (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors), ERα, HNF4α, and DEAD-box RNA helicases in the prevention and treatment of cancer and diabetes.