Dr. Ujendra Kumar

2007 Career Investigator Award, Senior Scholar

Biology of somatostatin|,|

Somatostatin (SST) is a hormone produced by neurons and secretory cells in many parts of the brain, as well as in the gut, thyroid, kidneys, reproductive organs and lymphoid tissue. It acts as an important regulator of endocrine and nervous system function by inhibiting the secretion of several other hormones, such as growth hormone, insulin, and gastrin.

Dr. Ujendra Kumar has discovered that SST plays a neuroprotective role against neurodegenerative diseases and breast cancer, supporting the hypothesis that the hormone may be of considerable importance in specific diseases such as cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, Alzheimer and Huntington disease and HIV/AIDS. His laboratory is one of the few in the world that has been focused on clarifying molecular mechanisms of SST receptors and their signaling pathways through which SST induces cells to stop growing or die. His observation that SST-containing neurons are selectively resistant to continuous stimulation has given the new insight to the potential role of SST and its receptors to help to understand the molecular pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.

In his work as a Senior Scholar, Dr. Kumar is focusing on four specific projects that will further explain the processing of SST, the structure and function of SST receptors, the role of SST in neurodegeneration and the functional interaction of SST receptors with receptor tyrosine kinases. By building a better understanding of SST, his research could have applications for the treatment of several human diseases.

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