
Dr Narayan Kumar
- Associate Professor
- Area: Biotechnology and Bioinformatics

Dr. Kumar earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, his master’s degree in biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), and his doctorate from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, Rajasthan. He has been actively involved in both teaching and research for more than 16 years. Many graduates, postgraduates, and Ph.D. students have been mentored by Dr. Kumar. His research interests include Plasmid Manipulation and Prokaryotic Vector Design, Metal Toxicity and Bioremediation, Drug Docking, Protein Modelling, Designing of Prokaryotic Expression Vector, Drug Discovery for Molecular Targeted Therapy of Cancer (by Computational Approaches), Bioenergy, and other topics.
He has served as the chair of numerous national conferences and symposiums. He is a member of the Association of Microbiologists of India and the American Society of Microbiology (USA). His research group is now working on the development of a broad host range prokaryotic expression vector from natural isolates of lactic acid bacteria, metal toxicity and bioremediation, and drug design and docking. He has published articles in reputed journals and participated in various international conferences. He has received an Indian patent on a temperature inducible promoter derived and modified from Enterococcus Faecium DJ1 Plasmid. He has received scholarships from the UGC-BSR, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and the Department of Biotechnology of India. Dr. Kumar has evaluated manuscripts for the Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics, Taylor & Francis, and IEEE Access, among other notable peer-reviewed publications.
Qualification
- PhD (Biotechnology & Bioinformatics), Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani
- MSc (Biotechnology) IIT Roorkee
- BSc (Chemistry) Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi
Experience
- Industry – 6 months
- Teaching – 10+ years
Courses taught
- Genetic Engineering
- Molecular Biology
- Biological Chemistry
- Synthetic Biology
- Plant Biotechnology
- Computational Biology
- Analytical Techniques
- Biological Sequence Analysis
- Biology for Engineers
- Cell Biology
Research area(s)
- Molecular Biology – Plasmid Manipulation and Prokaryotic Vector Design
- Bioenergy – Downregulation of gene in lactic acid bacteria with the intention of diverting the metabolic flux towards high production of butanol (Biofuel)
- Computational Biology –
- Drug discovery for molecular targeted therapy of cancer via computational method
- Drug Docking and Protein Modelling
Selected publications
- R. Suravajhala, S. Gupta, N. Kumar and P. Suravajhala, “Deciphering LncRNA–protein interactions using docking complexes,” J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn., pp. 1-8, 2020, DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2020.1850354.
- L. Goyal, N. Kumar and S. Khanna, “Butanol tolerant bacteria: isolation and characterization of butanol tolerant staphylococcus SCIURI SP.,” J. Biotech Res., vol.10, pp. 59-68, 2019.
- Devi, N. Kumar and S. Khanna, “Downregulation of lactate dehydrogenase expression in Lactobacillus brevis ATCC367,” Res. J. Biotechnol., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 140-147, 2020.
- N. Kumar, C. V. K. Ponnaluri, A. Putarjunan, S. Ranganathan, U. Roy and A. Das, “Characterization of temperature inducible promoters from a novel rolling circle replicating plasmid of Enterococcus faecium DJ1,” Plasmid, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 211-226, 2012, DOI: 10.1016/j.plasmid.2011.12.00.
- R. Mehrotra, G. Gupta, R. Sethi, P. Bhalothia, N. Kumar and S. Mehrotra, “Designer promoter: an artwork of cis engineering,” Plant Mol. Biol., vol. 75, no. 6, pp. 527 – 536, 2011, DOI: 10.1007/s11103-011-9755-3.
Publications
Research papers
- N. Kumar and C. Sharma, “Pathophysiology of memory inception and retrogression and clock dependent divergence in cognizance,” Chronobiol. Med., vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 1-10, 2021, DOI:10.33069/cim.2021.0005.
- Devi, N. Kumar and S. Khanna, “Lactobacillus: A promising genus for the production of industrially important metabolite,” Res. J. Biotechnol., vol. 14, no. 7, pp. 167-177, 2019.
- N. Kumar, N. Jyotsana, S. Paul and A. Das, “Identification and screening of lactic acid bacteria for the presence of naturally occurring plamids,” Int. J. Integ. Biol., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 85 – 89, 2011.
- R. Suravajhala, S. Gupta, N. Kumar and P. Suravajhala, “Deciphering LncRNA–protein interactions using docking complexes,” J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn., pp. 1-8, 2020, DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2020.1850354.
- L. Goyal, N. Kumar and S. Khanna, “Butanol tolerant bacteria: isolation and characterization of butanol tolerant staphylococcus SCIURI SP.,” J. Biotech Res., vol.10, pp. 59-68, 2019.
- Devi, N. Kumar and S. Khanna, “Downregulation of lactate dehydrogenase expression in Lactobacillus brevis ATCC367,” Res. J. Biotechnol., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 140-147, 2020.
- N. Kumar, C. V. K. Ponnaluri, A. Putarjunan, S. Ranganathan, U. Roy and A. Das, “Characterization of temperature inducible promoters from a novel rolling circle replicating plasmid of Enterococcus faecium DJ1,” Plasmid, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 211-226, 2012, DOI: 10.1016/j.plasmid.2011.12.00.
- R. Mehrotra, G. Gupta, R. Sethi, P. Bhalothia, N. Kumar and S. Mehrotra, “Designer promoter: an artwork of cis engineering,” Plant Mol. Biol., vol. 75, no. 6, pp. 527 – 536, 2011, DOI: 10.1007/s11103-011-9755-3.
Conference papers
- A. K. Singh and N. Kumar, “Renewable and sustainable electrical energy harvested from living plants: An experimental stud” in Int. Conf. Elec., Comp., Commun., and Mechatron. Eng. (ICECCME), 2021, pp. 01-04, DOI: 10.1109/ICECCME52200.2021.9590928.
Patents
- A. Das and N. Kumar, “Temperature inducible promoter derived and modified from Enterococcus faecium DJ1 plasmid and its use in E.coli for production of desired protein,” Patent No. 304798, Dec. 2018.
Awards and recognition
- PhD fellowship from UGC-BSR and Ministry and Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, BITS, Pilani.
- MSc Merit Scholarship by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
- Poster Award in the conference organised by Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nādu.
Professional activities and achievements
- Reviewed research papers in several prestigious peer reviewed journals like Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics, Taylor & Francis and IEEE Access.”
- MHRD-GATE qualified with an All India Rank of 20 in Life Science
- Guided two PhD students
- Supervised R&D project of 32 BTech (Biotechnology) students
- Member of Library Committee
- Member of Academic Council
- SAAM coordinator
- Bio-society club coordinator
- Research coordinator in BT/BI Area
- Faculty coordinator in SiNUsoid technical fest
Other interests
- Social activities, chess, badminton