Lekha Dinesh Kumar

Dr. Lekha Dinesh Kumar
Principal Scientist
Cancer Biology Division,
Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology,
India

After finishing her Msc in Zoology at Kerala University, Dr. Lekha Dinesh Kumar did her second masters and Phd in Molecular biology & Biotechnology at IARI, New Delhi. She joined as Scientist C at CDFD, Hyderabad in 1998. Later she shifted to CCMB in 2001 where she is currently holding a position of Principal Scientist and Project Leader, Cancer Biology. She received “Vicky Dickinson memorial fellowship” of Cardiff University for Post Doctoral Research in 2005. She is also the recipient of UICC-ICRETT (International Union against Cancer) fellowship award (2008). Her research activities at CCMB include Biomarker discovery in Breast cancer and Leukemias with an emphasis on the role of oncomiRs in the development and progression of these cancers. Her group has adopted a multidisciplinary approach consisting of in silico, in vitro and in vivo studies for identifying deregulated microRNAs and their targets. This would open up the possibility of using these small RNA molecules for the prognosis, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in future

Dr. Kumar's main interest is biological drug discovery with an emphasis on “wnt signal transduction pathway and the effect of its deregulation during colon and breast cancer”. Creating in vivo novel disease models by knock-in and knock out transgenic technology is being followed by her group to silence, over express and misexpress the wnt deregulators in the murine intestine. They also intend to use siRNA/shRNA as a biological drug in combination with various nanoparticles for delivery into colon and breast cancer models.