Mohanakumar is known to have done notable work on neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.[5] It was under his leadership, an advanced clinical and experimental research laboratory on neurodegenerative diseases was established at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology where research is carried out on the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease.[3] AT IICB, he headed a cybrids laboratory, reported to be one of the most advanced ones in India, and was involved in the study of neurodegenerative diseases, with special emphasis to the impact of mitochondria. His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles[8][note 1] and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 184 of them.[9] Besides, he has edited work books for practicing neurobiologists[10][11] and has contributed chapters to books edited by others.[12] He has mentored several master's and doctoral scholars in their research[3] and has delivered many invited speeches, which included the one delivered at Amrita BioQuest 2013.[4]
Mohanakumar, an elected member of Guha Research Conference, received the Young Scientist Award of the Indian Council of Medical Research in 1991. The Indian Academy of Neurosciences elected him as a fellow in 1999[20] and a year later, the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2000.[1] The elected fellowship of the National Academy of Sciences, India was awarded to him 2008.[21] He is also a recipient of the Uvnas Prize of the Indian Pharmacological Society for the best scientific publication and the Tulsabai Somani Educational Trust Award of Indian Academy of Neurosciences. The award orations delivered by him include Coln. R. N. Chopra Memorial Oration of Indian Pharmacological Society and Prof. B.K. Bachhawat Memorial Life Time Achievement (2019).
Selected bibliography
Chapters
Alexander Storch, Michael A. Collins (Editors); K. P. Mohanakumar, D. Muralikrishnan )(Chapter authors) (6 December 2012). Neurotoxic Factors in Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 290–. ISBN978-1-4615-1269-1. {{cite book}}: |author1= has generic name (help)
Sengupta T., Vinayagam J., Singh R., Jaisankar P., Mohanakumar K.P. (6 December 2016). Plant-Derived Natural Products for Parkinson's Disease Therapy. In: Essa M., Akbar M., Guillemin G. (eds) The Benefits of Natural Products for Neurodegenerative Diseases. Advances in Neurobiology, vol 12. Springer, Cham.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Chakraborty J, Nthenge-Ngumbau DN, Rajamma U, Mohanakumar KP (2014). "Melatonin protects against behavioural dysfunctions and dendritic spine damage in 3-nitropropionic acid-induced rat model of Huntington's disease". Behav. Brain Res.1 (264): 91–104. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2014.01.048. PMID24509309. S2CID926656.
^"Conference Committee ISN". International Society for Neurochemistry. 24 November 2017. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
^"IAN Fellows". Indian Academy of Neurosciences. 24 November 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
^"NASI Year Book 2015"(PDF). National Academy of Sciences, India. 24 November 2017. Archived from the original(PDF) on 6 August 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2017.