Dixon B. Kaufman is the Ray D. Owen Professor within the Division of Transplantation of the Department of Surgery at the School of Medicine and Public Health of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Kaufman is certified by the American Board of Surgery in General Surgery. He is the Director of the UW Health Transplant Center.  His clinical focus has been on kidney and pancreas transplantation, as well as cellular transplantation of islets. His experimental clinical research has focused on immunosuppression minimization in kidney and pancreas transplant recipients and was among the initial investigators evaluating the induction agent, alemtuzumab, in prednisone-free immunosuppression in kidney and in pancreas transplant recipients. His basic research efforts have focused on two areas: i) development of islet transplantation for treatment of diabetes; and ii) tolerance induction in a primate model of kidney transplantation (supported by an NIH U0-1 award as part of the Non-human Primate Tolerance Study Group Consortium). Dr. Kaufman has successfully translated his pre-clinical islet transplant research (his first publication on it in 1983) into a successful Phase 3 clinical registration protocol in conjunction with the NIH-supported Clinical Islet Transplantation Consortium (2004-2014).  Dr. Kaufman has proven his experience in developing pre-clinical models into successful clinical application.  He is committed to doing the same in a kidney transplant tolerance induction protocol by translating his large animal pre-clinical studies to human pilot studies of immune tolerance. 

Dr. Kaufman has held national leadership positions in many facets of the transplant field. He has been active with the United Network for Organ Sharing and was Chair of the Pancreas/Islet Transplant Committee, as well as serving as Councilor of Region 7, and a member of the Executive Board. He is active with the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS), having served as Chair of the Education Committee, Executive Program Committee Chair for the American Transplant Congress, ASTS Councilor, Secretary, and President.