Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

M.Sc., Ph.D.,

Personal Statement

Dr. Pavan Kumar is a Ph.D.-trained clinical immunologist with over 17 years of research experience, specializing in host immune responses to tuberculosis (TB), particularly in the context of co-existing conditions such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, malnutrition, and helminth infections. His research is centered on identifying immune biomarkers that can predict treatment outcomes. He has made significant contributions to biomarker discovery in both adult and pediatric TB and actively investigates vaccine-induced immunity, including immune responses to BCG and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines such as Covaxin. Additionally, Dr. Kumar has conducted research on immune responses in children affected by Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). With approximately 135 peer-reviewed publications, over 5,555 citations, and an h-index of 39, his work reflects a substantial global impact in the field of immunology.

Research Focus

• Investigating immune responses to tuberculosis in the context of co-morbidities

such as diabetes mellitus, malnutrition, and helminth infections

• Identifying biomarkers in adults and children with TB to aid in diagnosis and

disease monitoring

• Exploring the role of host immune responses in determining TB treatment

outcomes

• Studying immune mechanisms involved in post-tuberculosis lung diseases

• Characterizing immune responses to vaccines and identifying correlates of

protection

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

• Characterisation of Immune Responses in Tuberculosis Associated Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Metabolites, Inflammation, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Tuberculosis Patients
• The Regional Prospective Observational Research for Tuberculosis (RePORT) India Phase II Common Protocol

Significant Publications

1. Pavan Kumar N, M R, Nancy A, Kumar BS, M J, Ahamed SF, Kumar V, S V, S S, R K, Baskaran D, Hissar S, Babu S. Acute-phase proteins as biomarkers of inflammation in HIV patients with latent tuberculosis: a prospective study. Front Immunol. 2025;16:1551775. (IF :5.7)
2. Pavan Kumar N, Balaji S, Devi PG, Ramraj B, Nancy A, Selvaraj N, Ahamed SF, M K, S S, Gunasundari A, Seetha A, Varadarajan P, S E, Venkataraman A, Babu S. Inflammatory cytokine responses in pediatric tuberculosis with or without SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity. J Infect. 2024;89(6):106314. doi:10.1016/j.jinf.2024.106314 (IF:14.3)
3. Pavan Kumar N, Moideen K, Viswanathan V, et al. Heightened microbial translocation is a prognostic biomarker of recurrent tuberculosis. Clin Infect Dis. 2022;75(10):1820-1826. doi:10.1093/cid/ciac236 (IF: 8.2)
4. Pavan Kumar N, Banurekha VV, Kumar CPG, Nancy A, Padmapriyadarsini C, Shankar S, et al. Inactivated COVID-19 vaccines: durability of Covaxin/BBV152 induced immunity against variants of concern. J Travel Med. 2022;29(6). (IF:9.1)
5. Pavan Kumar N, Moideen K, Nancy A, et al. Plasma chemokines are baseline predictors of unfavorable treatment outcomes in pulmonary tuberculosis. Clin Infect Dis. 2021;73(9):e3419-e3427. doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa1104 (IF: 8.2)
6. Pavan Kumar N, Hissar S, Thiruvengadam K, et al. Discovery and validation of a three-cytokine plasma signature as a biomarker for diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis. Front Immunol. 2021;12:653898. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2021.653898. (IF :5.7)
7. Pavan Kumar N, Padmapriyadarsini C, Rajamanickam A, Marinaik SB, Nancy A, Padmanaban S, et al. Effect of BCG vaccination on proinflammatory responses in elderly individuals. Sci Adv. 2021;7(32). (IF:11.7)
8. Pavan Kumar N, Moideen K, Nancy A, et al. Association of plasma matrix metalloproteinase and tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase levels with adverse treatment outcomes among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(12):e2027754. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.27754 (IF:10.5)
9. Pavan Kumar N, Fukutani KF, Shruthi BS, Alves T, Silveira-Mattos PS, Rocha MS, West K, Natarajan M, Viswanathan V, Babu S, Andrade BB, Kornfeld H. Persistent inflammation during anti-tuberculosis treatment with diabetes comorbidity. Elife. 2019;8:e46477. doi:10.7554/eLife.46477 (IF:6.4)
10. Mayer-Barber KD, Andrade BB, Oland SD, Amaral EP, Barber DL, Gonzales J, Derrick SC, Shi R, Pavan Kumar N, Wei W, Yuan X, Zhang G, Cai Y, Babu S, Catalfamo M, Salazar AM, Via LE, Barry CE 3rd, Sher A. Host-directed therapy of tuberculosis based on interleukin-1 and type I interferon crosstalk. Nature. 2014;511(7507):99-103. doi:10.1038/nature13489 (IF:48.5)

Awards and Honours

• 2009 – Awarded best poster presented in “36th Annual meeting of Indian immunology society”, NIMHANS, Bangalore, INDIA.

• 2011 – Awarded “The Global Health Travel Award” funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for attending Keystone Symposia “Tuberculosis: Immunology Cell Biology and Novel Vaccination Strategies” Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA.

• 2013 - Awarded “The Global Health Travel Award” funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for attending Keystone Symposia “Novel Therapeutic approaches to tuberculosis” Denver, Colorado, USA

• 2016 - Awarded “The Global Health Travel Award” funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for attending Keystone Symposia “New Developments in Our Basic Understanding of Tuberculosis” Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA

• 2017- Awarded Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) National Post-Doctoral Fellowship for the period of Two years (May 2017 to April 2019)

• 2022 - ICMR-Major General Saheb Singh Sokhey Award, 2020 for the work in the field of Basic Science: Immunology of Tuberculosis.

• 2023 – Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Associate Fellow Award

• 2023 – Validate Network Training Grant for 2023 Union Conference on Lung Health, Paris

Research Profiles