Kochupurackal P. Mohanakumar (born 1955) is an Indian chemical biologist, neuroscientist and the director of Inter University Centre for Biomedical Research and Super Specialty Hospital,Kottayam. He is a former chief scientist at theIndian Institute of Chemical Biology and is known for his studies onParkinson's disease andHuntington's disease. TheDepartment of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him theNational Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2000.^[1]

Born in the south Indian state ofKerala in 1955,^[2] Mohanakumar did hisundergraduate studies at theUniversity of Kerala to earn aB.Sc. in zoology in 1976.^{[citation needed]} His master's studies were atAligarh Muslim University and after obtaining anM.Sc. inexperimental biology and chemicalneuroanatomy, in 1979, he enrolled atSaurashtra University for his doctoral studies to secure aPhD inneuropharmacology in 1985. His post-doctoral work and advanced training were at theNational Institutes of Health,University of Göttingen,University of Essen, and theUniversity of Virginia Medical Centre.^[3]

On his return to India, he joined theIndian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram where he served as a professor of biological sciences.^[3] Subsequently, he moved to theIndian Institute of Chemical Biology of theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research and was serving as the chief scientist at the Cell Biology and Physiology Division^[4] and as the head of the Project Monitoring and Evaluation Division,^[5] when he returned to his home state as the director of Inter University Centre for Biomedical Research and Super Specialty Hospital, Kottayam, a position he holds to date.^[6] He simultaneously serves as the convenor of the governing council of the institution.^[7] He has also served as a professor at theAcademy of Scientific and Innovative Research.^[3]

Mohanakumar is known to have done notable work onneurodegenerative andneurodevelopmental disorders such asParkinson's disease,Huntington's disease,autism andattention deficit hyperactivity disorder.^[5] It was under his leadership, an advanced clinical and experimental research laboratory on neurodegenerative diseases was established at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology where research is carried out on thepathogenesis of Parkinson's disease.^[3] AT IICB, he headed acybrids laboratory, reported to be one of the most advanced ones in India, and was involved in the study of neurodegenerative diseases, with special emphasis to the impact ofmitochondria. His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles^{[8][note 1]} andResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 184 of them.^[9] Besides, he has edited work books for practicing neurobiologists^[10][11] and has contributed chapters to books edited by others.^[12] He has mentored several master's and doctoral scholars in their research^[3] and has delivered many invited speeches, which included the one delivered at Amrita BioQuest 2013.^[4]

Mohanakumar has been an elected member of theInternational Society for Neurochemistry and sits in its conference committee.^[13] He is a former president of the Society of Neurochemistry India and a former vice-president of the Indian Academy of Neurosciences.^[3] He has been associated withTWAS as well asUNESCO as a professor, with theDepartment of Biotechnology as a member of itsNeurobiology Task Force,^[14] and is a member of the Chemical Biology Society.^[15] He sits in the editorial boards of journals such asAnatomy and Cell Biology,^[16]Neuroscience and Medicine,Journal of Neurochemistry,^[17]Neurochemistry International,^[18] andNeurochemical Research.^[19]

Mohanakumar, an elected member ofGuha Research Conference, received the Young Scientist Award of theIndian Council of Medical Research in 1991. The Indian Academy of Neurosciences elected him as a fellow in 1999^[20] and a year later, theDepartment of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him theNational Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2000.^[1] The elected fellowship of theNational Academy of Sciences, India was awarded to him 2008.^[21] He is also a recipient of the Uvnas Prize of the Indian Pharmacological Society for the best scientific publication and the Tulsabai Somani Educational Trust Award of Indian Academy of Neurosciences. The award orations delivered by him include Coln. R. N. Chopra Memorial Oration ofIndian Pharmacological Society and Prof. B.K. Bachhawat Memorial Life Time Achievement (2019).

• Alexander Storch, Michael A. Collins (Editors); K. P. Mohanakumar, D. Muralikrishnan )(Chapter authors) (6 December 2012).Neurotoxic Factors in Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 290–.ISBN 978-1-4615-1269-1.{{cite book}}:|author1= has generic name (help)
• Sengupta T., Vinayagam J., Singh R., Jaisankar P., Mohanakumar K.P. (6 December 2016).Plant-Derived Natural Products for Parkinson's Disease Therapy. In: Essa M., Akbar M., Guillemin G. (eds) The Benefits of Natural Products for Neurodegenerative Diseases. Advances in Neurobiology, vol 12. Springer, Cham.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Chakraborty J, Rajamma U, Mohanakumar KP (2014). "A mitochondrial basis for Huntington's disease: therapeutic prospects".Mol. Cell. Biochem.389 (1–2):277–291.doi:10.1007/s11010-013-1951-9.PMID 24374792.S2CID 12998766.
• Chakraborty J, Nthenge-Ngumbau DN, Rajamma U, Mohanakumar KP (2014). "Melatonin protects against behavioural dysfunctions and dendritic spine damage in 3-nitropropionic acid-induced rat model of Huntington's disease".Behav. Brain Res.1 (264):91–104.doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2014.01.048.PMID 24509309.S2CID 926656.
• Paidi RK, Nthenge-Ngumbau DN, Singh R, Kankanala T, Mehta H, Mohanakumar KP (2015). "Mitochondrial Deficits Accompany Cognitive Decline Following Single Bilateral Intracerebroventricular Streptozotocin".Curr Alzheimer Res.12 (8):785–795.doi:10.2174/1567205012666150710112618.PMID 26159195.

• Ronald F. Pfeiffer; Zbigniew K. Wszolek; Manuchair Ebadi (9 October 2012).Parkinson's Disease, Second Edition. CRC Press. pp. 60–.ISBN 978-1-4398-0714-9.
• Ana Martinez; Carmen Gil (29 July 2013).Emerging Drugs and Targets for Parkinson's Disease. Royal Society of Chemistry. pp. 82–.ISBN 978-1-84973-617-6.
• Society for Neuroscience (18 February 2011).SfN 2010 Daily Books. Coe-Truman Technologies. pp. 375–.ISBN 978-1-61330-000-8.
• Armen A. Galoyan (6 June 2012).Brain Immune System Signal Molecules in Protection from Aerobic and Anaerobic Infections. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 193–.ISBN 978-1-4614-3667-6.

• N-BIOS Prize recipients
• 1955 births
• Living people
• Scientists from Kottayam
• University of Kerala alumni
• Academic staff of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala
• Aligarh Muslim University alumni
• National Institutes of Health people
• University of Göttingen alumni
• University of Virginia School of Medicine alumni
• Indian biochemists
• Indian neuroscientists
• Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, India

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