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:
eLife Digest of our grooming paper
Very well written summary of our work in eLife. https://elifesciences.org/digests/63207/lights-camera-action
Updated paper: Gait analysis
An updated version of Gait analysis paper is on Biorxiv. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.29.424780v2 It has new analysis from Keith Sheppard and Gautam Sabnis including several new figures in the supplement. We look forward to getting reviews...
Grooming paper is published in eLife
Paper link is here https://elifesciences.org/articles/63207 Data associated with the paper is here with video data uploaded to Zenodo https://zenodo.org/record/4646088 We also share some videos of our network in action:...
Rotta Vocabulary
Cross Validation In cross validation, the classifier is trained on a set of labels (training set), then tested on a set of labels held-out of the training set (testing set). This is used to estimate the accuracy of the classifier. In Rotta, we use a 10-fold cross...
Left and Right Turn
Definition of Behavior Turn behavior is when a mouse changes directions. It can happen when the mouse is moving or when it starts from no movement. It can also occur after rearing on wall. The change in direction varies in amount. Sometimes a mouse can carry out a...
Gait Paper is online
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.08.331017v1
Grooming paper is online
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.08.331017v1
Science during social isolation
One of the things that have been consistent in my life for the last 3 years, is my personality type INFP (Introvert--Sensing-Feeling-Perceiving) in the Myers-Briggs test. Thanks to an annual workshop organized by our institution around leadership skills that made me...
Random Forests
The biggest perk of working at JAX besides getting to work in a team on exciting research problems is its location. The lab is situated between the Gulf of Maine and the mountains of Acadia National Park. The park offers innumerable outdoor activities. One such...
Owning a reptile in a canine and feline companion world
Earlier this year, I decided to obtain a new addition to my home: a pet bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps). It's been awhile since I've wanted a pet and finally made the move. While most people think that the pets of choice in america is either a cat or a dog, most...
Kumar Lab receives a new grant from NIDA
The Kumar Lab received a grant from NIDA to build new models of addiction. The press release is here https://www.jax.org/news-and-insights/2020/july/building-better-mouse-models-for-addiction-research The project summary is available here: PROJECT SUMMARY Addiction is...
Kumar Lab hosts Dr. Eric Yttri for a virtual visit
Dr. Yttri, from Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Biological Sciences, presented his lab's latest work from this paper. The paper uses unsupervised learning to understand the types of behaviors mice carry out. Dr. Yttri met with postdocs, engineers, and...
