T. Rajendra Kumar, PhD

Serdar Bulun, MD

Dr. T. Rajendra Kumar is an Edgar L. & Patricia M. Makowski Professor and Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO. He obtained his PhD in Endocrine Biochemistry from the University of Delhi, India. He received his postdoctoral training from the Vollum Institute at the Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland. He then moved to Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, where he continued his research on mouse genetics and reproductive axis development in the Departments of Pathology and Molecular and Cellular Biology. Between 2004 and 2016, he established his laboratory at the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS. During 2014 to 2016, he served as the Director of Center for Reproductive Sciences, within the Institute of Reproductive Health and Regenerative Medicine, at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Kumar's current research efforts are focused on gonadotrope development and molecular genetics of pituitary tumors, transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of gonadotropin subunit gene expression, gonadotropin secretion, and pituitary control of gonad and bone development and physiology. His research is supported by the NIH and the Makowski Endowment.

Dr. Kumar published more than 90 articles in high impact journals including Nature, Nature Genetics, Cell, J Clinical Investigation, PNAS, J Biological Chemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, and Endocrinology and Molecular Endocrinology. He co-edited a textbook entitled Transgenics in Endocrinology and edited a book entitled Gonadotropins: From Bench Side to Bedside. He has been an invited speaker at several national and international symposia/conferences and various universities/institutes. He served as a Chair, or Co-Chair at many of these symposia. Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor of Molecular Reproduction and Development, a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors of Biology of Reproduction and an Editorial Board member of Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. Dr. Kumar is an active Member of the Society for the Study of Reproduction and Endocrine Society. He served as a Member on several NIH Study Section and Special Emphasis grant review panels. He has trained several students and fellows and serves as a member of many graduate students' thesis committees. Dr. Kumar received the Kansas-IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE) Faculty Scholar Award, KU Medical Center—Faculty Investigator Research Award, Thomas L. Noffsinger Investigator Award, Outstanding Reviewer Awards from the Endocrine Society and the Elsevier Press Journal, Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology.