Profile Dr. Praveen Kumar

Taste & Odor Systems Reception

Lise-Meitner-Str. 34
85354 Freising
Germany
Tel.: +49 8161 71-2985

E-Mail  ORCID 

In vertebrates, among the five basic taste qualities, the bitter taste sensation plays an important role for the rejection of potentially harmful food sources and therefore it is considered essential for survival. Bitter taste signaling networks are highly complex and tightly regulated. They are G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR, called TAS2R) and regulate essential functions in the body. Studying the signaling processes regulated by TAS2Rs is critical for the understanding of chemosensation and beyond and for the assessment of potential therapeutic options involving bitter substances.

My research is focused on investigating bitter taste receptor trafficking in living mammalian cells and in mouse intestinal organoids. An improved receptor-specific heterologous expression assay (in vitro) is being established in order to allow us to study the cell surface localization of TAS2R as well as a live cell monitoring of receptor trafficking in real-time, which enables detailed analyses of acute processes occurring during and after activation.

2022-Present Postdoc – Taste & Odor Systems Reception at the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (Leibniz-LSB@TUM)
2023 PhD Graduation at the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany
2021-2022 Postdoc – Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany
2018-2021 PhD student – Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany
2016 - 2018 Teaching assistant in Biology at GCI, Sikar, India
2015 M.Sc. Graduation in Biotechnology, Faculty III of Natural Sciences, Saarland University, Saarbruecken, Germany
2020 Paper of the Month 12/2020 by the Anatomische Gesellschaft

Studying bitter taste receptor biosynthesis, routing, and function in gustatory and non-gustatory systems

 

Kumar, P., Redel, U., Lang, T., Korsching, S., and Behrens, M. (2023). Bitter taste receptors of the zebra finch (Taeniopygio guttata). Front. Physiol. 14:1233711.

Behrens, M., and Kumar, P. (2022). Der Süßgeschmack des Menschen. Ein Sinn, auf den wir uns nicht immer verlassen können. Journal culinaire (Kultur und Wissenschaft des Essens). 35:111-117.

Hollenhorst, M.I.*, Kumar, P.*, Zimmer, M., Salah, A., Maxeiner, S., Elhawy, M.I., Evers, S.B., Flockerzi, V., Gudermann, T., Chubanov, V., Boehm, U., and Krasteva-Christ, G. (2022). Taste receptor activation in tracheal brush cells by denatonium modulates ENaC channels via Ca2+, cAMP and ACh. Cells. 11:2411. (*- shared authorship)

Kumar, P., Scholze, P., Fronius, M., Krasteva-Christ, G., and Hollenhorst, M.I. (2020). Nicotine stimulates ion transport via metabotropic β4 subunit containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Br J Pharmacol. 177:5595-5608.

Mukherjee, A., Katiyar, R., Dembla, E., Dembla, M., Kumar, P., Belkacemi, A., Jung, M., Beck, A., Flockerzi, V., Schwarz, K., and Schmitz, F. (2020). Early alterations of presynaptic Ca2+ signaling are associated with photoreceptor synapse malfunctions in the EAE mouse model of multiple sclerosis. iScience. 23(12):101830.