Past R & D experience

My Work as Assistant Professor ( NIPER-A)                                    ( Oct 2018 - Mar 2020)

My  Post-Doc Work ( IISc Bangalore)                                                  ( Mar 2017- Sep, 2018)

I am currently working on design and fabrication of micro/nanofluidic devices for gut-on-chip applications. An understanding the pathophysiology of the gut is necessary to develop effective medical therapies and drugs to treat diarrheal diseases. The project aims to develop a device combining the principles of biomaterials, tissue engineering, cell culture, lab-on-chip devices and data science - a truly interdisciplinary project

1. Kumar P, P Arpana, C Kaushik, A simple, scalable method of fabrication of nanofibrous cell culture inserts by direct deposition of electrospun nanofibers on 3D printed substrates, International Conference on BioMaterials, BioEngineering, and BioTheranostics, VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu (BioMET-2018) (Oral)

2. Kaushik Choudhury, R. K Singh, Kumar P, Ajay Kumar, Atul Srivastava, Controlling the size distribution of nanoparticles through the use of physical boundaries during laser ablation in liquids, Nano-Structures & Nano-Object, 2018 [ Impact factor: 4.25] 

3. Kumar P*, P Mit, P Navanit, Innovative capillary pump for micro-sampling of simulated blood for diagnostic applications , International Conference on Med-Tech Innovation in Primary Health Care, IIPH, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 2018 (Oral)

4. Kumar P, Agarwal P, Chatterjee K, Challenges and Opportunities in Dried Blood Spot: A Design and Interface Perspective, Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Analysis (Accepted), 2019 [Impact factor : 2.983]

5. Agarwal P, Kumar H, Kumar P*, Rapid and even spreading of complex fluids over a large area in porous substrates  Applied Physics Letter(AIP) (Accepted), 2020 [Impact factor - 3.597]

6. Kumar P, Dhaval Kedaria, Chinmaya Mahapatra, M. Monisha, Kaushik Chatterjee, Designer Cell Culture Insert with Nanofibrous Membrane toward Engineering an Epithelial Tissue Model Validated by Cellular Nanomechanics, Nanoscale Advances, 2021 ( Accepted)

My  Ph.D. Work (IITB Monash Research Academy)                         ( July 2011- Dec 2016)

Synopsis of Work: The micro/nanovascularised polymers play a vital role in tissue engineering, advanced drug delivery, self-healing and cooling materials and complex micro/nanofluidics applications. In the current work, we have theoretically and computationally studied the design parameters of fish gills which contribute towards its excellent gas/solute exchange organ. Thereafter, we designed and fabricated microvascularised thin PDMS matrices and demonstrated their fluid flow and gas/solute exchange capabilities. These fabricated microvascularised PDMS matrices further enabled us to study the role of microchannel density, the level of randomness and shape of a reservoir on volumetric flow and solute exchange through the above matrices when used as 3D micro/nanofluidic devices. The roles of above factors were further substantiated by findings of theoretical and modeling studies. Thus, based on above learning, we eventually generated bio-inspired, multiscale, micro/nanovascularised PDMS matrices using sacrificial micro-nanostructures generated by electrospinning and Hele-shaw apparatus, a lithography-free method. Further, dye flow experiments affirmed the continuity and connectivity among channels and solute diffusion studies demonstrated their capabilities to be used for different applications mentioned above. We have also designed and fabricated bio-inspired artificial leaves using simple, scalable micro technologies and demonstrated their enhanced micro pumping as well as pressure head sustenance capabilities. Further, studied the parameters affecting its performance through experimental and theoretical methods and expressed formulation as a design tool for optimization and scale-up of the micropumps. Thus, our studies demonstrate design and fabrication of 3D micro/nanofluidic devices by simple, scalable, inexpensive processes taking inspiration from nature. This will accelerate the research in the biomedical and chemical field for different applications. 

Publications (Journal, Conferences, thesis, and Patents)

 The part of work was carried out at Suman Mashruwala Advance Microengineering Lab, Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay, Mumbai ( http://www.me.iitb.ac.in/~mems) and Nano-Scale Engineering Lab, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton ( http://users.monash.edu.au/~mainakm/) 

My  R & D Job Work  (CSIO Chandigarh & AIIMS, New Delhi)                    (Oct 2010- Jun 2011)                                                   

Synopsis of Work: Cephalometric analysis has long helped researchers and orthodontic practitioners for evaluation of facial growth, understanding facial morphology and its ethnic variations, orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning for patients presenting with malocclusion and dentofacial deformities. In this work, we proposed an optimized template matching (OTM) algorithm which could automatically localize hard and soft tissue anatomical landmarks on lateral cephalometric images. Moreover, the algorithm for landmark identification and 6 basic cephalometric analysis were incorporated in VB.NET based software named AUTO CEPH (a semi-automated software for cephalometric analysis). The optimized template matching (OTM) algorithm may prove to be a promising approach in automatic detection of anatomical landmarks on cephalometric images.

Publications (Journal and Conferences):

The part of work was carried out at Computational Instrumentation Lab,  Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIR), Chandigarh ( http://www.csio.res.in/) and Center for Dental Education and Research, AIIMS, New Delhi ( http://www.aiims.edu/aiims/departments/spcenter/cder/cder.htm) 

My MTech Work  (IIT Kanpur)                                                                 (Jan, 2009- Aug-2010)

Synopsis of Work: The electrospun micro-/nano fiber systems have potential applications in tissue engineering, energy, textiles etc but in the absence of tools and methods to characterize their mechanical properties, their potential application has been limited. The polystyrene micro-/nanofibrous matrices were fabricated by electrospinning and experimentally characterized for their physical, structural and mechanical (tensile) properties. Thereafter,  a computational model of fibrous matrices was designed in MATLAB and mechanical simulations to access the tensile properties was carried out using FEM in LS-DYNA. It was observed that the simulation results showed consistency with the experimental results for mechanical behavior of fibrous structures. Thus, our study enabled the understanding of mechanics of nanofibrous matrices and led to a platform technology for predicting the mechanical properties of any fibrous structures from their structural properties.

Publications (Journal, Conferences, and thesis):

The part of work was carried out at Tissue Engineering and Drug Delivery Lab and Biomechanics Lab, Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering,  IIT Kanpur ( http://www.iitk.ac.in/bsbe/) and Biomaterials & Biomimetics Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Gujarat (http://www.bnblab.in/)