After one year of research with David Suzuki, Kaufman became an individual researcher in
Vancouver. During this time, Kaufman began his collaboration with Rob Denell that focused on a set of mutations that caused dominant defects in the fly’s head and anterior
thorax. In 1983, Kaufman became an associate professor at Indiana University, where he remains. It was during this time that Kaufman defined the
antennapedia gene complex. He discovered that this cluster of genes controlled the anterior segments in the embryo and adults. Kaufman broadened his work to examine the
HOX gene (homeotic gene clusters) in insects. In his personal statement for the
National Academy of Sciences he states that "The goal of my laboratory is to contribute to an understanding of the genetic regulation development of higher organisms. The homeotic (Hox) genes of Drosophila melanogaster have been our principal focus. Homeotic lesions cause one portion of the animal to be transformed into an identity normally found elsewhere. The role of the Hox genes is best viewed as a set of developmental switches for decisions of segmental fate. The encoded homeodomain has shown that this switch activity is carried out through the
transcriptional regulation of target genes." He has expanded his research from
Drosophila to include several other insects and members of other
subphylums under the
phylum Arthopoda, such as
Crustacea,
Chelicerata and
Myriapoda. He uses the technique of RNA-mediated gene inhibition (
RNAi) to study the evolution of the HOX gene. == Awards and honors ==