Meena is a leading expert in biomarkers and genetics, and has worked to apply insights from these areas to better understand ageing, cardiovascular disease, and health inequalities using the Whitehall II cohort study of British civil servants and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. She remains an Honorary Professor at UCL.

Meena is the topic champion for health and biomarker content and research in Understanding Society and continues to lead research on the social-biological interface and genetic epidemiology as an investigator for the study.

Additionally Professor Kumari leads the Centre for Doctoral Training in Biosocial Research (Soc-B) at Essex University (in collaboration with UCL and University of Manchester).