ORLANDO, Fla. ― Dimitri M. Kullmann, D.Phil., FRS, FMedSci, MAE, was presented with the 2023 Basic Science Research Award during the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Epilepsy Society (AES). The Research Recognition Awards are the Society's highest research awards to encourage and recognize active basic science and clinical investigators whose research contributes importantly to understanding and conquering epilepsy.
Dr. Kullmann is a professor of neurology at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London (UCL). He received his Bachelor of Arts in physiological sciences and obtained a Ph.D. in the laboratory of Julian Jack at the University of Oxford before completing clinical studies at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London.
Dr. Kullmann alternated between research in synaptic transmission including postdoctoral research with Roger Nicoll at the University of California, San Francisco, and postgraduate medical training in London. In 1992, he established the Kullmann Lab at the Institute of Neurology. He completed his neurology residency at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, where he continues to practice.
His research interests include fundamental mechanisms of synaptic transmission, neurological channelopathies and mechanisms of seizures. He has also developed several experimental gene therapies for refractory epilepsy, some of which are being de-risked for clinical translation. The Kullmann Lab has contributed to the discovery of silent synapses, glutamate spillover, presynaptic GABAA receptors in the cortex, human epilepsy caused by K+ and Ca2+ channel mutations, tonic inhibition in the hippocampus, and Hebbian and anti-Hebbian LTP in hippocampal interneurons.
Dr. Kullmann served as the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal, Brain, between 2014 and 2020. He was awarded the University Gold Medal in Medicine by the University of London in 1986 and the Baly Medal by the Royal College of Physicians in 2017. Dr. Kullmann is a member of AES, a corresponding fellow of the American Neurological Association, a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), a member of the Academia Europaea (MAE) and a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).