Alagarraju “Kumar” Muthukumar, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Associate Professor Schools Medical School Departments Pathology Biography Dr. Alagarraju Muthukumar is an Associate Professor of Pathology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he serves as Medical Director and CLIA Laboratory Director of Clinical Chemistry across six laboratories in the Dallas Fort Worth region. He also serves as Associate Medical Director for Quality in Clinical Laboratory Services. Dr. Muthukumar earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and pursued research in immunology and infectious diseases at AIIMS (New Delhi), UT Health San Antonio, and UT Southwestern. He subsequently completed clinical fellowships in Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Pathology at UT Southwestern and is board certified in Clinical Chemistry. Before returning to academia, he served as a Principal Scientist at Abbott Diagnostics. His research focuses on diagnostic assay development and validation, clinical decision pathways, laboratory quality improvement, and the use of large-scale clinical data to improve diagnostic practice. His work includes NIH- and industry-supported collaborations with academic institutions, biotechnology companies, and diagnostic manufacturers. He is a co-investigator in several ongoing gene therapy clinical trials and UT Southwestern's SPARC population genomics initiative. He has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Muthukumar is a Fellow of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) and serves on its national abstract review committee. Having held several leadership positions in the ADLM Texas Section, he was elected President for the 2027–2028 term. He also serves on departmental and institutional committees focused on laboratory medicine and quality. Education Graduate School Foreign Credentials Service of America (1996), Doctor of Philosophy Medical Education Madras University (1996), Doctor of Philosophy Other Foreign Credentials Service of America (1996), Doctor of Philosophy Other Foreign Credentials Service of America (1996), Doctor of Philosophy Fellowship UT Southwestern Medical Center (2006), Clinical Doctoral Scientist/Chemist Research Interest Repurposing of big data for clinical research Validation of new diagnostic assays Publications Featured Publications First-in-human high dose AAV9 intrathecal gene therapy for paediatric CLN7 disease: a phase 1, open-label, single ascending dose, non-randomised clinical trial. Greenberg BM, Minassian B, Messahel S, Edgar VB, Lowden A, Dahshi H, Nettesheim ER, Nguyen HH, Hughes S, Muthukumar AR, Srinivasan K, Iannaccone S, Varadarajan G, Gray SJ, Kayani SN, EBioMedicine 2025 Nov 123 106044 Revisiting High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin Abnormal Baseline Cutoffs: Implications for AMI Diagnosis in the Emergency Department. Sataranatarajan K, Narasimhan M, Chuckaree ID, Balani J, Zhang R, Vigen R, Muthukumar A, J Clin Med 2025 Oct 14 20 Modern Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Formulas Outperform Direct Methods in Patients with Hypertriglyceridemia and Low Levels of Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol. Meeusen JW, Yi X, Cotten SW, Nielsen JB, Donato LJ, Jones PM, Muthukumar AR, Zubirán R, Remaley AT, Cao J, Clin Chem 2025 Sep Navigating an unexpected creatinine result during a pre-intravenous contrast renal function workup. Narasimhan M, Smith K, Muthukumar A, Clin Biochem 2025 Jul 139 110979 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine failure rates and predictors of immune response in a diverse immunocompromised patient population. Greenberg BM, Minna JD, Gerber DE, Hernandez RS, Monson N, Muthukumar A, Cassady K, Chio E, Hooper AT, Wipperman MF, Greenberg DE, Vaccine 2025 Jul 62 127473 Increase in Lipoprotein (a) Screening and Utilization at an Urban Academic Medical Center. Wong W, Kao C, Schneider R, Muthukumar A, Navar AM, Rohatgi A, Khera A, Joshi P, Am J Cardiol 2025 Mar Fatigued with Friedewald: why isn't everyone onboard yet with the new LDL-C equations? Narasimhan M, Cao J, Meeusen JW, Remaley AT, Martin SS, Muthukumar A, Front Cardiovasc Med 2025 12 1534460 Performance Evaluation of Open Channel Buhlmann Fecal Calprotectin Turbo Assay on Abbott Alinity C Analyzer. Sataranatarajan K, Adhikari S, Nguyen N, Narasimhan M, Balani J, Muthukumar A, Diagnostics (Basel) 2024 Aug 14 16 Recent Recall of Iron Reagent-Investigation of Potential Reagent Contamination and Assay Improvement Strategy. Narasimhan M, Jaleta K, Adhikari S, Berihun M, SataraNatarajan K, Mahimainathan L, Cao J, Jones PM, Hashim I, Muthukumar AR, J Appl Lab Med 2024 Jul Comparison of Sampson and extended Martin/Hopkins methods of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol calculations with direct measurement in pediatric patients with hypertriglyceridemia. Islam SMT, Muthukumar AR, Jones PM, Hashim I, Cao J Lab Med 2023 Results 1-10 of 61 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Honors & Awards Best Poster FinalistSystematic Analysis of Biotin Interference in Roche Chemistry Assays. ASCP 2017 Annual Meeeting, Chicago, IL. September 6-8, 2017 Best Poster FinalistAre all creatinine results suspect during Dopamine and Debutamine infusions? ASCP 2017 Annual Meeeting, Chicago, IL. September 6-8, 2017 Distinguished Abstract awardSusceptability of High Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin I and Gen 5 cTnT assays to Biotin interference. 70th AACC Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. July 29 - August 2, 2018 Professional Associations/Affiliations American Association of Clinical Chemistry (2005) American Society for Clinical Pathology (2015)
