Welcome
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.
The Kumar Laboratory is located at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. We study neural circuits in the brain whose misregulation leads to behavioral abnormalities including addiction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and depression. Using mouse molecular genetics as a foundation, and a combination of computational, biochemistry, physiology, and imaging techniques, we dissect these complex conditions in mammals.
Latest Lab News and Blogs:

Jake’s Trip to NAPS
Last week Dr. Jake Beierle, our post-doctoral fellow, traveled to Montebello Quebec to attend the prestigious North American Pain School (NAPS). At the weeklong event, Jake shared his work assessing migraine models using the Kumar Lab’s machine learning empowered...

SSP Retreat Weekend
The two summer students from the Kumar lab were able to go with the rest of the summer student program (including from the Connecticut campus) to a weekend retreat at Camp Medomak in Washington, Maine! The weekend was spent swimming by the lake, playing various...
Strain Survey Open Field Video Dataset made public!
We have released our Strain Survey Open Field video dataset to the public over on harvard dataverse here: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SAPNJG What this release includes: 2509 55-minute open field assay experiments across 62 inbred and F1 hybrid strains 2509 pose files...
The Kumar lab at TAGC24
The Kumar lab’s doctoral students Jaycee and Yehya at TAGC 2024 presenting their ongoing work.

Maine Biz Article on AI in Maine includes profile of Kumar Lab
Maine Biz article is here. PDF of article is attached. https://www.mainebiz.biz/article/in-maines-medical-field-artificial-intelligence-takes-on-a-mountain-of-data In Maine's medical field, artificial intelligence takes on a mountain of data Mainebiz.biz...

Jaycee and Vivek publish review in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Jaycee and Vivek published a commentary entitled, A new era in quantification of animal social behaviors, in the Journal of Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. Link to article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38160721/

Vivek gives a seminar at Scripps Florida
Vivek was invited to give a talk at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology in February. Thank you for the invitation. I learned an incredible amount from my interactions with the faculty at Scripps Florida. ...

Kumar Lab science mentioned in Popular Science
The article is here! https://www.popsci.com/science/computer-vision-mice-pain-behavior/

Vivek directs year 3 of the Short Course on the Impacts of Sleep and Circadian Biology on Alzheimer’s Disease and Aging
Year 3 of the R13 course was a success! Thank you to all who attended. https://www.jax.org/education-and-learning/education-calendar/2023/10-October/impacts-of-sleep-and-circadian-biology-on-alzheimers-disease-and-aging 2023_CC_Impacts of Sleep flyer v4...

Vivek organizes the 2nd ML based behavior quantification course
The second year of the course was a success. We had 20+ instructors and ~35 students attend the course from all over the world! Lots of good science and hiking. JC, Jake, and Anshul attended the course from the Kumar Lab. JC was also a TA with Brian....

Kumar Lab’s work featured in news article in Nature
Our work on advanced phenotyping was mentioned in a news article in Nature. d41586-023-01926-w (1)

Kumar Lab 2023 photo
Our group photo for the summer of 2023!
