Dr. Kaufman is Professor of Biological Chemistry and Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. He received his B.A. degree in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of Colorado and his Ph.D. degree in pharmacology from Stanford University, where he studied gene amplification as a mechanism by which cells become resistant to anticancer agents. He was a Helen Hay Whitney fellow with Phillip Sharp at the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he developed gene transfer technologies based on gene amplification and expression in mammalian cells. After postdoctoral studies, Dr. Kaufman was a founding scientist at Genetics Institute Inc., where he engineered mammalian cells for high-level expression of therapeutic proteins, such as clotting factors that are now used to treat individuals with hemophilia. Since his move to the University of Michigan, Dr. Kaufman has focused on mechanisms by which mammalian cells regulate protein folding and secretion and a cellular response known as the unfolded protein response (UPR). He currently uses mouse models to elucidate the significance of the UPR in health and disease.