Dr. Dan Kaufman, pictured above, was the winner of the 1995 Jordi-Folch-Pi Memorial Award. Dr. Kaufman was selected to receive the Folch-Pi award for his studies using expression libraries to clone brain specific genes, in particular GAD67. Using recombinantly produced GAD67 protein, he then generated a GAD67-specific antibody, which has been widely used by neuroscientists to study GABAergic neurons. Using this antibody together with a GAD65-specific antibody, Dr. Kaufman showed that while GAD67 is distributed throughout the neuron, GAD65 is restricted to the nerve axon terminals. And, while most of GAD67 is saturated with its cofactor, less than half of GAD65 exists as active holoenzyme. This observation led to the suggestion that regulating GAD65 apo/holoenzyme levels in nerve terminals coupled GABA production to neuronal activity (J. Neurochem, 1991). These findings are being translated into novel approaches to improve health during aging and towards preventing and treating a range of neurological disorders.
Dr. Kaufman received his Ph.D. in Biology from UCLA where he worked with Allan Tobin. He then continued his studies as a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Instiute in the laboratory of Glen Evans. In 1991 he joined the faulty of UCLA where he has risen thorugh the ranks. Dr. Kaufman was promoted to to Full Professor in 2003 in the Department of Medical and Molecular Pharmacology. He is on the scientific board of directors of Diamyd, and is a past reviewer for both the NIH and the Juevniles Diabetes Foundation. Dr. Kaufman has received numerous awards in addition to the Folch-Pi Award, including the Otto H. Scherbaum Award for Outstanding Graduate Research (1987), Stein/Oppenheimer Award (1994), Frontiers of Science Award (1995), Kilby International Foundation Award(1996) Young Innovator Award (1996), Burroughs Wellcome Experimental Therapeutic Scholar Award (1997) and the Franklin D. Murphy Prize (2005). Most recently Dr. Kaufman's research has shifted towards the understanding the role of autoimmunity in disease, with a focus on diabetes and neuroimmune disorders.
Read the National Acadamy of Sciences' biographical memoir of Jordi Folch-Pi by Marjorie B. Lees and Alfred Pope.
