Arunkumar did his doctoral research in CDFD, Hyderabad where he studied genetics, genomics and evolutionary biology of silkmoths mainly using DNA sequences of both transcribed and un-transcribed regions of the genome. He was also involved in the development of two sequence analysis databases namely WildSilkBase and SilkSatDb that are widely accessed by researchers. Apart from silkworm biology, he also worked on identification of unusually long palindromes in the origin of replication region (Control region) of insect and nematode mitochondrial genomes. After PhD, he moved to Caltech for Post-Doctoral research in Prof. Bruce Hay's lab. There he worked on gene regulation in Drosophila to develop novel gene drive system. He is interested in Genetics, Genomics and evolutionary biology of animals, and genetic engineering of Insects.He is a recipient of Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA) and INSA Young Scientist Medal (Indian National Science Academy), and is a founding member of Indian National Young Academy of Science (INYAS).