Faculty at School of Natural Sciences

Manoj Kumar

Manoj Kumar

Assistant professor

School of Natural Sciences


Contact Information

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”.

  1. 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).
  1. 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).
  1. 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)).
  1. 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).
  1. 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).
  1. 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).
  1. 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).
  1. 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.
  1. 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).
  2. 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).
  1. 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).
  1. 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).

 

  1. 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

  1. 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.
  1. 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.