Dr. Daniel S. Kohane obtained his MD and a PhD in Physiology from Boston University. He subsequently completed residencies in Pediatrics and Anesthesiology, and a fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care. He is a Professor of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School, and the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Anesthesiology at BCH. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors.

His research interests include drug delivery, biomaterials, and nanomedicine, with considerable overlap between these. Pain, opioid use disorder, otic diseases, ophthalmic diseases, peritoneal adhesions, sepsis, venous malformations, and cancer are among the medical conditions that receive the most attention in the lab. He has applied his approaches in food, beverage, and agricultural research as well.

From a technological point of view, he has employed microparticles and nanoparticles, including polymeric systems, liposomes, mesoporous silicates, and others; hydrogels; hybrid systems that incorporate different size scales; organic and inorganic materials.

His inventions have included: drug delivery systems that can provide local anesthesia lasting 40 days; sensory-selective local anesthetics that last 10 days, drug-eluting contact lenses for a wide range of diseases, ear drops that provide an entire course of treatment for otitis with one administration. He has developed injectable systems that can release drugs when stimulated by light and ultrasound, including on-demand local anesthetics and release of naloxone. Several of his inventions have been licensed and/or been in human trials.

His research has been supported by the NIH since 1999 (with a variety of grant types; K08, R01, R21, R35, UG3), and by the NSF, a variety of foundations, and industry.