His research interests focus on understanding how changes in the brain produce neurological and mental illness, and his graduate work has led to several distinctions including the Somjen Award for Most Outstanding Dissertation Thesis, the Ruth K. Broad Biomedical Research Fellowship, the UNCF/Merck Graduate Science Research Fellowship and the Wakeman Fellowship. Kafui's ultimate goal is to combine his research background, medical training and community experience to improve outcomes for communities suffering from neurological and psychiatric illness. A product of the nationally renowned Meyerhoff Scholarship program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, he completed his Ph.D. in neurobiology at Duke University in 2007. In 2009, Kafui obtained an M.D. from Duke.