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.

Primarily, we use functional genomic approaches in mice to identify genes and pathways that regulate these behaviors. We seek to develop better models of human diseases that can be used by the biomedical research community for therapeutics. Recently, we have applied machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to understand animal behavior at high spatial and temporal resolution, objectively, and over long periods of time. Our work has been published in numerous high impact journals such as Science, eLife, Nature Communications Biology, among others. 

Latest Lab News and Blogs:

2023 Pirate Golf and BBQ

2023 Pirate Golf and BBQ

The lab celebrated the summer with our annual pirate golf and BBQ. It was also Sandeep's last day in the lab. This is the 6th (or 7th) year of Pirate Golf.

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Jaycee passes her qualifying exam

Jaycee passes her qualifying exam

Jaycee, who is part of the Tufts Genetics Program, passed her qualifying exam with flying colors. Nice job Jaycee, you are now an official PhD Candidate. We thank her committee (Dr. Beth Dumont, Greg Carter, Donna Slonim, and program representative Dr. Chris Baker)...

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Some useful links