Daniel Kaufman

Daniel Kaufman, Ph.D., is a full Professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also a member of the Brain Research Institute and participates in three interdepartmental graduate program “home areas”: Immunity, Microbes & Molecular Pathogenesis; Molecular Pharmacology; and Neuroscience.

Education & Training: While specific degree details are not listed in the text, Dr. Kaufman earned his Ph.D. and has held a faculty appointment at UCLA for many years, as evidenced by extensive publication and mentoring records.

Research Focus: Dr. Kaufman’s laboratory investigates the immunomodulatory functions of the GABA and GABA-receptor system, spanning neuroimmunology, autoimmune diabetes, tumor immunity, and infectious disease. His work has uncovered how GABAergic signaling can:

• suppress autoreactive T cells in type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis,
• protect β-cells and promote their replication,
• reduce viral replication and lung pathology in SARS-CoV-2 infection,
• attenuate tumor-directed immune responses.

Publication Trends: Over the past decade his output has concentrated on translational applications of GABAergic drugs—ranging from repurposing safe GABA analogues (homotaurine, lesogaberan) to discovering novel positive allosteric modulators—demonstrating efficacy in mouse models of diabetes, Sjogren’s syndrome, COVID-19, and multiple sclerosis. Imaging technologies, antigen-specific tolerance induction, and regulatory T-cell biology are recurrent themes.

Scientific Honors & Funding: Although specific awards are not enumerated, continuous NIH and foundation support is evidenced by sustained productivity, patents on GABA-based therapeutics, and invitations to author high-impact reviews in Nature and Nature Medicine.

Laboratory & Team:

• Laboratory Location: Room 23-167, Center for Health Sciences, UCLA
• Phone: 310-794-9664
• ORCID: 0000-0002-9844-5918

Dr. Kaufman mentors post-doctoral scholars and graduate students across the above-listed GPB Home Areas, and collaborates widely with imaging scientists, virologists, and clinical endocrinologists to accelerate bench-to-bedside translation.