Faculty at School of Natural Sciences
Manoj Kumar
Assistant professor
School of Natural Sciences
Contact Information
- Email: [email protected]
Synthetic mimics for living-systems (motility, self-organisation, sensing, intelligence and interaction). Active soft matter systems for intracellular navigation, detection, delivery (multi-cargo) and repair. Directed colloidal (anisotropic) assemblies. Active LLPS for prebiotic chemistry. Reconstitution of cytoskeleton network and multi-component lipid membrane around anisotropic and topologically complex shapes – physical basis of antigen presentation.
- PhD, Chemical Sciences (Soft Matter, Physical Chemistry), CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India (2011 - 2017).
- MSc, Physical Chemistry, Himachal Pradesh University – Shimla (Summerhill), India (2008-2010)
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow: National Centre for Biological Sciences-TIFR, Bangalore, India (2017-2025)
- Visiting Faculty: Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India (Aug 2025 – Dec 2025)
- Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow: University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands (May 2019 - June 2019).
- Visiting Researcher: Department of Chemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (March 2012 - May 2012)
- Awarded JRF and SRF fellowship by CSIR (2011-2016).
- Qualified GATE in Chemical Sciences, March 2010 and March
- Qualified BARC OCES/DGFS all India test (2011)
- NCL RF-Keerthi Sangoram Memorial Endowment Award (2016) for “Best Research Scholar in Chemical Engineering”.
- Manoj Kumar*, Siddharth Sane, Aniruddh Murali and Shashi Thutupalli. Temperature switchable self-propulsion activity of liquid crystalline microdroplets. Soft Matter, 2025, 21, 3782-3788. (DOI: 10.1039/D4SM01382D).
- Manoj Kumar*, Aniruddh Murali, Arvin Gopalakrishnan, Rajesh Singh* and Shashi Thutupalli*. Emergent dynamics due to chemo-hydrodynamic self-interactions in active polymers. Nature Communication, 2024, 15(1), 4903. (DOI: 1038/s41467-024-49155-7).
- Manoj Kumar*, Anupam Singh, Benedetta Del Secco, Maksim V. Baranov, Geert Van den Bogaart, Stefano Sacanna, and Shashi Thutupalli*. Assembling anisotropic colloids using curvature-mediated lipid sorting. Soft Matter, 2022, 18(9), 1757-1766.(DOI: 1039/D1SM01517F (Cover page)).
- Anupam Singh, Shashi Thutupalli, Manoj Kumar* and Sandeep Ameta*. Constrained dynamics of oligonucleotides in phase-separated droplets. Biophysical Journal, 2024, 123(11):1458-1466 (DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2023.12.025).
- Sandeep Ameta*, Manoj Kumar, Nayan Chakraborty, Matsubara YJ, Prashanth S, Dhanush Gandavadi, Shashi Thutupalli*. Multispecies autocatalytic RNA reaction networks in coacervates. Communications Chemistry, 2023, 6(1), 91 (DOI:10.1038/s42004-023-00887-5).
- Baranov, Maksim , Manoj Kumar, Stefano Sacanna, Shashi Thutupalli, and Geert Van Den Bogaart*. Modulation of immune responses by particle size and shape. Frontiers in Immunology, 2021, 11, 607945 (DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.607945).
- AG Subramaniam, Manoj Kumar, Shashi Thutupalli, Rajesh Singh*. Rigid flocks, undulatory gaits, and chiral foldamers in a chemically active polymer. New Journal of Physics, 2024, 26 (8), 083009 (DOI: 1088/1367-2630/ad6a7c).
- Gaurav Singh, Geen George, Ponnuvel Kandaswamy, Manoj Kumar, Shashi Thutupalli, Sunil Laxman, and Akash Gulyani*. A molecular rotor probe FLIM reveals dynamic coupling between mitochondrial inner membrane fluidity and cellular respiration. PNAS, 2023, 120(24): e2213241120 (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2213241120). Best research paper award by NCBS.
- Maksim Baranov, Ioannidis M., Balahsioui S., Boersma A., de Boer R., Manoj Kumar, Hirayama T., Benedetta Del Secco, Shashi Thutupalli, Stefano Sacanna, and Geert Van Den Bogaart*. Irregular particle morphology and membrane rupture facilitate ion gradients in the lumen of phagosomes. Biophysical Reports, 2022, 2(3):100069(DOI: 10.1016/j.bpr.2022.100069).
- Manoj Kumar, Naganath Patil, Ashootosh V. Ambade and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy*. Large PAMAM Dendron induces formation of unusual P4332 mesophases in Monoolein/water system. Langmuir, 2018, 34(23), 6827–6834 (DOI:1021/acs.langmuir.8b00551).
- Manoj Kumar Mayuresh A. Kulkarni, Narendiran G. Chembu, Arun Banpurkar and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy*. Aqueous dispersions of lipid nanoparticles wet Hydrophobic and Superhydrophobic Surfaces. Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 205-215 (DOI: 1039/C7SM01817G).
- Manoj Kumar, and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy*. Phase behaviour of the ternary system: monoolein–water–branched polyethylenimine. Soft Matter, 2015, 11(28), 5705-5711 (DOI: 1039/C5SM01082A).
- Manoj Kumar, Naganath Patil, Chandan Kumar Choudhury, Sudip Roy, Ashootosh V. Ambade, and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy*. Compact polar moieties induce lipid–water systems to form discontinuous reverse micellar phase. Soft Matter, 2015, 11(27), 5417 (DOI: 10.1039/C5SM00854A (Cover Page)).
Patents
- Guruswamy Kumaraswamy, Manoj Kumar, Ambade, A. V. A discontinuous reverse micellar composition in cubic Fd3m phase for sustained release of therapeutic 2017, US Patent 10,722,462.
- Guruswamy Kumaraswamy, Manoj Kumar, Mayuresh A. Kulkarni. Method for preventing retraction of aqueous drops and a medical device coated with hydrophilic coating,” 2019, US Patent 16,316,844. (Technology licensed by Hyderabad-based ATGC company).
- IIT Indore, IIT Mandi, IIT Delhi, Delhi University, Department of Chemistry,
- IISER Mohali, Department of Physics,
- IISER Bhopal, Department of Physics, 2023.
- Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB), The Netherlands, May 2019.
- Mumbai -Pune Soft Matter meeting, CSIR-NCL, 2016.
- Complex-fluid and soft-matter one-day symposium organized at CSIR-NCL, best talk,2016
- Invited lecture at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, 2015.
Oral Presentations:
- Oral presentation at the ISMC conference, Osaka, Japan, in 2023.
- Oral presentation at the ISMC conference, Poznan, Poland, in 2022.
- APS Satellite meeting, ICTS-TIFR, March 2022.
Poster Presentations:
- National Fluorescence Workshop: FCS Satellite hands-on workshop on total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM), and FCS-2013 conference, IISc - Bangalore, 2013.
- Mumbai-Pune Soft Matter conference, IISER Pune, 2013.
- SERB School on Rheology of Complex Fluids, IIT-Delhi, 2013.
- International Congress of Cell Biology (ICCB), CCMB-Hyderabad, 2018.
- Postdoc lecture series in advanced biology 2022: “Feedback and Signalling System in Biology," 29th May-24th July 2022, Virtual.
- Postdoc lecture series in advanced biology 2021: “Disease, Pandemic, and Vaccine," 4th July-22nd August 2021, Virtual. (https://www.ncbs.res.in/people/postdocs-lecture-series)
- TA for small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) course 2016, CSIR-NCL Pune, a course taught by Prof. Guruswamy Kumaraswamy.