Nicole Coufal, M.D., Ph.D.

Bio

Dr. Nicole Coufal is a board-certified pediatrician and pediatric intensivist at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and an assistant professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

She received her medical and doctoral degree in neurosciences at UC San Diego. Thereafter Dr. Coufal continued her training in pediatrics and pediatric critical care at UC San Diego as well as a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

The Coufal lab's primary research interests are to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the development and regulation of microglia, the brain's resident macrophage. Current projects focus on understanding how microglia are affected by their environment and how they become dysregulated in the setting of neuroinflammatory disease. To understand and model microglial biology, Dr. Coufal utilizes induced pluripotent stem cells and genome-wide approaches to identify transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms. By improving modeling of genetic and idiopathic neuroinflammatory disease she hopes to ultimately improve the understanding and treatment of critical pediatric neuroinflammatory disease.

Dr. Coufal is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member of the Society for Critical Care Medicine and a member of the Society for Neuroscience.