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Manoj Kumar

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology

Current Research

In a modernized society, where it is becoming difficult to escape loud noises, exposure to loud noises is the leading cause of hyperacusis and tinnitus, the highly debilitating hearing disorders characterized by hyperexcitability of the brain cells. Hyperacusis, which is diagnosed as painful sensitivity to everyday sounds, affects 10-15% of people. Tinnitus, which is diagnosed as the perception of phantom sounds, affects about 15-20% of people. Despite the high prevalence and debilitating consequences of hyperacusis and tinnitus, treatment options are limited to hearing prosthetics with no pharmacotherapeutic options. To aid in the development of prevention and treatment options for noise-induced hyperexcitability hearing disorders, it is imperative to decipher the molecular and cellular signaling mechanisms underlying the hyperexcitability of brain cells after loud-noise exposure.

In my research program, to mechanistically develop and test the pharmacotherapy for noise-induced hyperexcitability disorders, we are identifying the signaling mechanisms underlying the brain cells' hyperexcitability after loud-noise exposure at molecular-, cellular-, and behavioral levels. To achieve our research goals, we employ in vivo acute and longitudinal two-photon Ca2+ imaging of distinct neuronal brain cell-types in awake mice, operant behavior, chemogenetics, optogenetics, inducible conditional knockout mice, and pharmacological approaches.

If you are interested in joining our research team, please contact me at Mak328@Pitt.edu.

Selected Recent Publications

A Genetically Encoded Far-Red Fluorescent Indicator for Imaging Synaptically-Released Zn2+
Science Advances    In Press March, 2023
Tianchen Wu, Manoj Kumar, Jing Zhang, Zhengyu Zhao, Mikhail Drobizhev, Mason McCollum, Charles T. Anderson, Ying Wang, Antje Almeida, Xiaodon, Tian, Yiyu Zhang, Thanos Tzounopoulos*, Hui-wang Ai*
These authors contributed to this work equally
*Corresponding authors

Synaptic Zinc Enhances Inhibition Mediated by Somatostatin, but not Parvalbumin, Cells in Mouse Auditory Cortex
Cerebral Cortex    Jun 1, 2020
Stylianos Kouvaros, Manoj Kumar, and Thanos Tzounopoulos

Fine Control of Sound Frequency Tuning and Frequency Discrimination Acuity by Synaptic Zinc Signaling in Mouse Auditory Cortex
Journal of Neuroscience    Jan 30, 2019
Manoj Kumar, Shanshan Xiong, and Thanos Tzounopoulos and Charles T. Anderson

Cell-specific gain modulation by synaptically released zinc in cortical circuits of audition
eLife    Sep 9, 2017
Charles T Anderson*, Manoj Kumar*, Shanshan Xiong and Thanos Tzounopoulos
*equal contribution

A Single Amino Acid Residue at Transmembrane Domain 4 of the α Subunit Influences Carisoprodol Direct Gating Efficacy at GABAA Receptors
Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics    Jun 22, 2017
Manoj Kumar, Manish Kumar, John M Freund, Glenn H Dillon

Synthesis and Evaluation of Potent KCNQ2/3-specific Channel Activators
Molecular Pharmacology    Jun 8, 2016
Manoj Kumar, Nicholas Reed, Ruiting Liu, Elias Aizenman, Peter Wipf, Thanos Tzounopoulos

Assessment of subunit-dependent direct gating and allosteric modulatory effects of carisoprodol at GABA receptors
Neuropharmacology    Apr 18, 2015
Manoj Kumar, Lorie A González, Glenn H Dillon