Academic Profile : Faculty

Assoc Prof Anjali Parmanand Kusumbe_1.jpg picture
Assoc Prof Anjali Parmanand Kusumbe
Associate Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
Associate Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
Kusumbe earned her doctorate in 2012 as a Fellow of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, focusing on the roles of cancer stem cells and endothelial cells in ovarian cancer progression. She continued her research at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, where she explored the heterogeneity of endothelial cells in bone and discovered a specialized type of blood vessel that illuminated the connection between bone vasculature and aging.

In 2017, Kusumbe received the Medical Research Council Career Development Award, followed by a European Research Council Starting Grant in 2019. Her research focuses on the transport networks formed by blood and lymphatic vessels, investigating their evolution over time and implications for tissue regeneration, immune function, and cancer spread.

Notably, her findings revealed that vascular erosion - characterized by the differentiation of pericytes into fibroblasts—serves as a key feature of many aging tissues. This loss of vasculature is organ-specific; highly regenerative tissues like the gut, bone, and skin maintain blood capillaries as they age. She identified the gap junction protein Gja1 as a significant factor in endothelial cell aging within the pancreas, linking aged blood vessels to reduced beta cell proliferation in islets due to changes in secreted factors.

Kusumbe has pioneered methods that allow for high-resolution imaging of tissue microenvironments, bone and vasculature, and. Her groundbreaking work challenged the long-held belief that bones lack lymphatic vessels. Utilizing advanced imaging techniques, she demonstrated their presence and showed that their numbers increase in response to cellular stress and DNA damage. This process is regulated by proteins such as VEGF-C/VEGFR-3 and IL-6.

Kusumbe is committed to open science, sharing her imaging tools and making 3D tissue maps available through open-access databases.
Awards
• 2024: Early Career Advisory Board, Journal of Cell Biology
• 2023: British Society for Cell Biology, Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal
• 2023: Rising Star, International Society of Regenerative Medicine
• 2022: Royal Microscopical Society Award for Life Sciences
• 2022, 2023: GOLD Award, Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework
• 2021: European Calcified Tissue Society Iain T Boyle Memorial
• 2019: European Research Council (ERC), Starting Grant/ERC Investigator
• 2017: Medical Research Council, UK, Career Development Award
• 2017: John Goldman Fellowship
• 2016: Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research, Senior Research Fellowship
• 2016: Elected Member - European Calcified Tissue Society Academy
• 2015: Orthopaedic Research Society Alice L. Jee Award
• 2014: German Society for Cell Biology Werner-Risau Memorial Award
• 2005: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Fellowship, India
• Since 2019: UK Reference Customer, Miltentyi Biotec