The Kumar Lab
We are a group of geneticists, neuroscientists, and computer scientists who are passionate about discoveries of novel targets and models for mental illness through innovation at the confluence of computational, genetic, and genomic methods.
Our Research Focus
The Kumar Lab consists of geneticists, neuroscientists, and computer scientists. We are passionate about discovering novel targets and models for mental illness through innovation at the confluence of computational, genetic, and genomic methods. Broadly, we are interested in development of better animal models and animal phenotyping methods for human psychiatric illnesses. We use computer vision approaches to quantitate behavior and functional approaches to understand its underlying neuronal and genetic architecture. We have developed high-throughput computer vision based methods for ethologically relevant animal phenotyping. In functional genomics work, we use QTL and mutagenesis approaches to discover novel pathway that can be targeted for addiction therapeutics. Our approaches are flexible and can be applied towards many psychiatric phenotypes. In sum, we are a leading research group using genetics as its foundation, and a combination of biochemistry, physiology, imaging, and computer vision techniques to dissect complex behavior in mammals.
Visit the Kumar Lab Personal Lab Site
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Research HighlightJune 01, 2023New phenopacket-tools released to simplify construction of phenopackets
Peter Robinson and colleagues have developed phenopacket-tools, which simplify construction of phenopackets by providing programmatic shortcuts and predefined building blocks. -
Research HighlightMay 09, 2023Variability in the earliest stages of development
The processes enabling pluripotency at the very beginning of life are more different between mouse strains than you might expect. -
Research HighlightApril 27, 2023Uncovering the genetic secrets behind human uniqueness
Ryan Tewhey is part of a research group that identified and characterized more than 10,000 human-specific Conserved Deletions (hCONDELs) enriched for brain functions. The findings will be important for further investigation of the evolutionary mechanisms that produce the traits that distinguish humans from other species. -
Research HighlightApril 11, 2023Churchill Lab performs multi-omics study on protein phosphorylation regulators
The Churchill lab performed an integrative multi-omics analysis of 58 genetically diverse Collaborative Cross strains to identify regulators of protein phosphorylation.
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Research HighlightMay 31, 2023Variation in Diversity Outbred mice epigenetics
New research finds that the epigenetic landscape is highly variable between the strains of Diversity Outbred mice and is associated with variation in gene expression. -
Blog PostMay 04, 2023JAX Genomic Education leads DNA Day 2023 celebrations
JAX Genomic Education joined the global celebration of all things genetics across JAX campuses, online, and in our communities. -
Research HighlightApril 25, 2023Unraveling exercise's impact on brain health
Erik Bloss has received a $3.9M R01 to study neurological changes in response to exercise and the role specific neurons in the brain. -
Research HighlightApril 05, 2023Exploring genetic diversity in mouse strains
Christine Beck led a team that explored mouse genome, and revealed details across 20 diverse inbred strains that will be critical for informing mouse-based genetics and genomics research moving forward.