Devendra Kumar

Dr. Devendra Kumar is an assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy and Technology Management. He obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), and completed his postdoctoral research at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, USA, in 2021. His research interests include the design, devolvement, and biological screening of small molecules, metal complexes, and peptides for the management of Alzheimer\'s disease, Fragile X syndrome (FXS), and tuberculosis. Dr. Kumar worked on Alzheimer’s disease and developed CNS-active small molecules such as acetylcholine, butylcholinesterase, beta-secretase 1, matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 inhibitors, and NMDA receptor antagonists. Along with drug discovery, Dr. Kumar is also working on the pathophysiology of FXS. His work on FXS includes the identification of spine abnormalities and the role of microglia. His focus is the study of microglia–neuron communication in genetically modified animals. He is also working on gene editing tools using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) technology and the development of blood–brain barrier-penetrating polymers as the delivery vehicle for CRISPR molecules.