Kumar Hari, Ph.D., Consultant (Grant Management, Discovery Biology & Project Management)
Although Kumar Hari, is one of the newest full-time members of the Myelin Repair Foundation team he plays a very critical role in helping us uncover our laboratories’ scientific discoveries that may entice pharmaceutical and biotech companies — ultimately connecting our research more closely with the drug development process.
He works closely with our academic labs on discovery biology programs, which are the core research projects funded by the MRF each year. On a day-to-day basis his work entails monitoring the progress of MRF-funded research programs and finding projects that can be further developed to stimulate interest commercially. He also serves as a liaison with members of our research teams, utilizing his background in bioinformatics and research to help our scientists share their data in real-time.
Kumar is comfortable in bridging the gap between academic research to industry drug development given his 10 years experience in target validation, program management and business development through positions at Isis Pharmaceuticals and as Director and Co-founder of cBio, Inc., a life sciences consulting firm. Prior to founding cBio, he worked as a Scientific Program Officer at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which works to support and advance stem cell research and regenerative medicine for the discovery and development of cures, therapies, diagnostics and research technologies to relieve human suffering from chronic disease and injury. While a part of the state stem cell agency, he began to explore various models to promote early stage academic programs into therapy development, which is how he discovered the Myelin Repair Foundation’s Accelerated Research Collaboration TM Model.
Kumar has a close family member with multiple sclerosis and so when he saw how our structured research plan could speed therapies through early development he became a motivated volunteer for the Myelin Repair Foundation, helping us apply for governmental and grant funding sources. Luckily for us, he was able to join our team full-time this past June and is now contributing more of his research and business acumen to our organization.
When asked about his thoughts of the MRF ten years from now, he says:
Non-profits have been taking on a more prominent role to bring new and better therapies to patients more quickly. This is a response to the desire to have academia and pharma/biotech work together more efficiently. Ten years from now, I would be proud to say that the MRF developed a framework that is commonly used by academia and industry to promote research discoveries into clinical development.
Thanks to the hard work, drive and achievements of people like Kumar Hari, the MRF can stand proudly as a non-profit organization that is successfully bridging the gaps in medical research to more quickly provide potential therapies to MS patients.
As a proud mother of three great kids, I wish them all the best and particularly to her brilliant, gentle and compassionate son to help humans more and more. She can never thank him enough for all his hard work and dedication. Restlessness is the the other side of the coin of brilliance. As a mother, I hope he achieves the right balance and enjoys himself along with his eqully brilliant spouse and continue to help his family and all the humans.
Comment by Savitri Hari — August 26, 2009 @ 9:35 pm
[...] link is being shared on Twitter right now. @mrf_justine, an influential author, said MS research [...]
Pingback by Twitter Trackbacks for Kumar Hari, Detective of Our Discoveries | The Myelin Repair Foundation Blog [myelinrepair.org] on Topsy.com — August 27, 2009 @ 4:27 pm
Hi Kumar,
Hearty Congratulations! Glad to note your achievements.
Best wishes,
-Srinivas Hari
Hyderabad, India.
Comment by Srinivas Hari — August 31, 2009 @ 12:56 am
” Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought and Ten cents’ worth of human understanding equals ten dollars’ worth of medical science”
We wish you long life, enthusiasm and energy, to carry on this good work.The Hari clan is proud of you.
Comment by Parvati Sastry — November 2, 2009 @ 2:48 am
How can we follow what Kumar and MRF are doing to spread the word of how well this new kind of non-profit organizing to span the gap from basic research to effective clinical application to other organizations? Media? Pressure groups? Activists in the streets? Celebrations? Awards?
How can the multitude of approaches to disseminating such wonderful ideas be employed and evaluated? Where should we solicit assistance in educating everyone? Doug Englebart suggested building communities dedicated to continuous improvement of methods for understanding and applying new learnings of every sort.
One of my specialties is taking any small idea and inflating it to world class importance. Sometimes that’s useful, other times not. Still, I think it seldom makes things worse.
Comment by Richard Karpinski — February 3, 2010 @ 9:19 am
Richard,
Thank you for sharing with us your enthusiasm for changing the medical research system. There is a lot that you could do, but I suggest taking small steps at first. Can you tell 10 friends and family about the situation, educate them if they are interested in bringing more treatments to patients.
You could start top-down and aim for major media attention. This requires crafting a deliberate PR campaign which may revolve around a certain activity or event.
Or you could take more of a community and grassroots approach and organize people interested in-person and online and develop more ways to spread the message.
Give us an email if you want to chat some more about actions to take. info@myelinrepair.org
Justine
Comment by Justine Lam — February 3, 2010 @ 12:15 pm
[...] increasing every year since the MRF was founded in 2002. As of late, thanks to the hard work of Kumar Hari, we have reached a total of over 150 drug targets. This is an extraordinary number of potential [...]
Pingback by What are drug targets? | The Myelin Repair Foundation Blog — August 25, 2010 @ 9:41 am