Kevin K. Kumar, MD, PhD

Clinical Biography

Kevin K. Kumar, MD, PhD, is a pediatric neurosurgeon in UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s, a clinical partnership between Dell Children’s Medical Center and UT Health Austin. He specializes in the treatment of pediatric brain and spine tumors, vascular malformations, developmental anomalies, and epilepsy. Additionally, Dr. Kumar is an assistant professor in the Dell Medical School Department of Neurosurgery at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Kumar earned his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences with a concentration in neurobiology and behavior from Cornell University, where he graduated cum laude with distinction in research. He earned both his master’s degree and PhD in neuroscience from Vanderbilt University’s Medical Scientist Training Program, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded dual degree program, where he served as a member of the laboratory of Aaron Bowman in the Vanderbilt Brain Institute and his dissertation focused on investigating neuronal manganese regulation in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases using high-throughput screening, induced pluripotent stem cells, and chemical biology approaches. He completed a residency in neurosurgery at Stanford University, where he served as chief resident; an NIH-funded research fellowship in the laboratory of Marius Wernig at the Stanford University Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, where his work focused on developing a platform to replace microglia in the brain as a novel therapy for neurodevelopmental disorders and led to the publication of the first proof of concept of this technology in a mouse model of a lysosomal storage disorder; and a clinical fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford.

Dr. Kumar’s research focuses on the development of novel cellular-based therapeutics for pediatric neurological disorders. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed scientific articles on topics including neuromodulation, epilepsy, pediatric trauma, and spine and vascular pathologies. He has given over 30 presentations at national and international conferences, and he is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, North American Neuromodulation Society, and Society for Neuroscience.

Dr. Kumar is a pediatric neurosurgeon with UT Health Austin.