[1][2] Since 1986, his academic research on cardiovascular biology, optogenetics, mouse genetics, and ion channel function has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.
[citation needed] Kotlikoff received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in literature in 1973 and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1981, both from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
His work helped establish the identity and function of ion channel proteins in muscle cells, and his laboratory helped create and progressively improve Green Fluroescent Protein (GFP)-based optogenetic sensor molecules, termed GCaMPs, and created the first transgenic mouse expressing an optogenetic sensor.
His laboratory reported development of the first mouse strain to express genetically=encoded Ca2+ sensing molecules and the first in vivo recording of heart cell calcium signaling.
In 2020, Kotlikoff and then-President Martha E. Pollack led Cornell's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included a university-wide diagnostic program driven by epidemiologic data, and resulted in one of the open residential campuses being able to host in-person classes and experiencing low level of infection.