Dr. Suresh Kumar obtained his Masters degree in Zoology from Lovely Professional University, Punjab, and completed his Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu. In 2015, he joined the lab of Dr. Vojo Deretic at University of New Mexico for his postdoctoral Research. In 2019, Dr. Kumar joined as a Research Assistant Professor at Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of New Mexico. Dr. Suresh Kumar joined as an Assistant Professor at BSBE in October 2021.

Dr. Kumar’s research is focused on understanding the mechanism of autophagy in the mammalian system. Studies include understanding the membrane dynamics during biogenesis of autophagosomes and investigation of consequent steps in autophagy. Autophagy has a role in a vast variety of human pathophysiological conditions including cancer. Inhibition of autophagy and lysosomal systems is being tested in clinical trials against several types of cancer. However, the molecular mechanism of the role of autophagy in cancer is poorly understood. Dr. Kumar’s lab work on delineating the mechanism by which autophagy regulates cancer progression. He also studies the mechanism underlying the role of autophagy in conferring resistance to the chemotherapies against colorectal and breast cancer. The major goals of the Dr. Suresh Kumar’s lab are:

1. To investigate the mechanism involved in regulating membrane fusion during autophagosome biogenesis.
2. To understand the role of autophagy and associated lysosomal system in progression of colorectal and breast cancers.
3. To determine the role of autophagy and lysosomal system in resistance to chemotherapies against colorectal and breast carcinomas.

Dr. Kumar’s lab also investigates the role of autophagy in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Autophagy utilizes different cellular membranes including ER, Golgi and endosomal membranes for the formation of double membrane autophagosomes, similar cellular membranes are utilized by SARS-CoV-2 replication transcriptional complex to form double membrane vesicles. We study the potential competition between autophagy and SARS-CoV-2 replication transcriptional complex for cellular membranes.

Dr. Kumar’s lab utilizes multiple microscopy based techniques including super-resolution microscopy, electron microscopy and confocal microscopy to study the membrane dynamics in autophagy. His group uses unbiased proteomics studies, RNASeq and metabolomics approaches to study the role of autophagy in cancer. Dr. Kumar works with cancer cell lines, mouse models and develop organoids from biopsies from cancer patients.