Dixon B. Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Dixon B. Kaufman is Professor of Surgery, and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Kaufman completed his clinical surgical residency and transplant surgery fellowship training at the University of Minnesota in 1992. Dr. Kaufman moved to Northwestern University in 1992 and initiated and currently serves as director of the Pancreas and Islet Transplantation Programs of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He is an associate editor for the journals Transplantation, and American Journal of Transplantation, and serves on the Kidney and Pancreas Committees of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). He is currently a Councilor of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association, and serves on the Council of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. His basic research efforts have focused on the immunobiology of islet transplantation and the immune mechanisms of early host non-specific inflammatory mediators of islet allograft injury resulting in primary non-function. Current research focuses on developing non-invasive imaging modalities of the transplanted islet. Dr. Kaufman's pre-clinical islet transplant studies have elucidated the detrimental effects of corticosteroid use on islet transplant outcomes, and the beneficial results of the agent, 15-deoxyspergualin (DSG), on suppressing early host non-specific inflammatory mediators of islet allograft injury. Dr. Kaufman will be working in conjunction with Dr. Bernhard Hering to determine the clinical efficacy of DSG immunotherapy on islet allograft engraftment and function as part of the cooperative NIH sponsored islet transplantation consortium.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital Kovler Transplant Center

Return to Who is in the CIT Consortium