Kullmann's research[3][7] investigates how synapses function in health and disease.[8] His laboratory helped to show how neurotransmitters activate different receptor subtypes in and around synapses, and resolved some controversies about the mechanisms of long-term changes in synaptic strength.[8] Genetic and autoimmune disorders of synaptic proteins (‘synaptopathies’) provide insights into the mechanisms of a broad range of neurological diseases including epilepsy and migraine.[8] Together with his colleagues, Kullmann has used these insights to devise gene therapy strategies that could be used to treat intractable epilepsy.[8][3]
The Kullmann lab[3][7] has contributed to the discovery and elucidation of silent synapses,[9] glutamate spillover, tonic inhibition,[10] long-term potentiation in interneurons,[11] neurological channelopathies[12] and Synaptopathies, gene therapy for epilepsy,[13] and mechanisms of neural oscillations.[14] Kullmann served as the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Brain between 2014 and 2020[15] and is on the editorial board of the journal Neuron.[16] Before working at UCL, he did postdoctoral research with Roger Nicoll at the University of California, San Francisco.[2]
Kullmann was awarded the University Gold Medal in Medicine by the University of London, in 1986.[2] and the Baly Medal by the Royal College of Physicians in 2017.[2] He was elected a Guarantor of Brain in 2000,[17] elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2001,[18] a Corresponding Fellow of the American Neurological Association in 2013,[19] a member of the Academia Europaea (MAE) in 2017[20] and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.[8] He was awarded the 2023 Basic Science Research Award by the American Epilepsy Society.[21]
