The award granted him $1.5 million over the next five years to support his research programme, which combines approaches from biophysics, systems biology and oncology to study how cells sense and process mechanical forces in human health and disease.

One of Kumar's areas of interest is the development of brain tumors, including malignant gliomas, the most common and aggressive of all primary brain tumors.

Kumar and his research group are combining traditional cell biological approaches with cutting-edge micro- and nanoscale engineering tools to understand how mechanical signals influence the development of glioma cells, neural stem cells and other cell types.

Before joining the Berkeley faculty in 2005, Kumar spent two years as an NIH Research Fellow at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. He holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University.