Dr. Manishekhar Kumar currently serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He received his doctoral degree in Biosciences and Bioengineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT) in Guwahati, India. During his doctoral studies, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. He completed his postdoctoral training at Cornell University. Prior to joining the McGowan Institute and the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Kumar was an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Surgery at Indiana University and an investigator at the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering (ICRME) at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Dr. Kumar’s research focuses on understanding mechanisms of wound healing in biofilm-infected diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and tissue nanotransfection (TNT)-based tissue reprogramming approaches. Dr. Kumar is exploring the non-invasive direct insulinogenic reprogramming of skin for insulin production and diabetes reversal in vivo. This work involves a non-viral TNT which enables natural insulin production by skin-resident cells correcting hyperglycemia under condition of diabetes in a glucose sensitive manner.

Additionally, Dr. Kumar has a research interest in dissecting the molecular mechanism of deficiency in barrier function of biofilm-infected non-healing DFUs. Wounds with biofilm infections close with deficient barrier function and are associated with wound recurrence. His research interest lies in understanding the functional wound closure that can prevent the recurrence of such DFUs.

Dr. Kumar has contributed to more than 20 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), Diabetes, and Biomaterials, as well as ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

View a list of Dr. Kumar’s publications here.