The Global COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative: Mapping of the Host Genetic Architecture of COVID-19 while Improving Diversity in Genetics

Kumar is a Computational Scientist. His general research interests are in human genetic epidemiology, particularly in modeling and understanding complex genetic diseases. Currently, he is working on understanding familial polygenic risk of migraines in Finns.

He obtained his Bachelor’s degree (First Class Honours) in Biotechnology at UCSI University, Malaysia (advised by Renee Lim Lay Hong, Ph.D.) and completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences in 2016 at the University of Miami (advised by Olaf Bodamer, MD, PhD). During his undergraduate and subsequent faculty position at UCSIUniversity, his research interests included heterologous expression of recombinant proteins and candidate gene studies of myopia and obesity in Malaysian adolescents. For his Ph.D., his work focused on the genetics of preterm birth which included whole exome sequencing analysis of a Miami-Latino population, and an integrated analysis (RNA-seq and methylation) of a longitudinally ascertained birth cohort.