Sathish Kumar

Dr. Kumar’s laboratory investigates how exposure to environmental chemicals, unbalanced diet, hormonal disruption, cigarette smoking, sleep apnea (hypoxia), and infection during pregnancy have a permanent bearing on the health of the mother and baby. Dr. Kumar’s laboratory uses rat models and human samples to examine how these adverse prenatal exposures reprogram the fetal organs (pancreas and skeletal muscle) to develop diabetes when they grow into adults. Additionally, Dr. Kumar’s lab also examines why and how metabolic functions differ between males and females. The long term goal is to identify endocrine disruptors, environmental pollutants, and lifestyle disorders that lead to metabolic dysfunctions and establish ameliorative strategies to preserve metabolic function and develop sex-specific treatment strategies for diabetes.