Henry Paulson, MD, PhD, is the Lucile Groff Professor of Neurology for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders in the Department of Neurology within the University of Michigan Medical School, a key figure in Medicine at the institution. He serves as Director of the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Co-Division Chief of Cognitive Disorders, and Research Professor at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute, while also co-directing the U-M Protein Folding Diseases Initiative. Paulson earned his MD and PhD in Cell Biology from Yale University in 1990. He completed his Neurology residency in 1994 and Movement Disorders fellowship in 1997 at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Prior to joining the University of Michigan faculty in 2007, he held positions at the University of Iowa. Board-certified in Neurology, his clinical practice focuses on geriatric neurology.

Paulson’s research investigates the molecular mechanisms, causes, and treatments of age-related neurodegenerative diseases, emphasizing repeat expansion disorders such as polyglutamine diseases and spinocerebellar ataxias, as well as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. In 1997, his laboratory first described abnormal protein aggregates as a pathological hallmark in polyglutamine diseases. His group has advanced gene silencing methods, including RNA interference, as potential therapies for disorders caused by toxic mutant genes, using models from test tubes to animals. He directs popular courses at American Academy of Neurology meetings, serves on scientific advisory boards for national organizations, and was past Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Paulson is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and recipient of the NIH NINDS Landis Outstanding Mentor Award. Additional honors include the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging, Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar in Aging Research, and semifinalist status for the W.M. Keck Foundation Young Scholars in Medical Research. Key publications include “Disrupting the Balance of Protein Quality Control Protein UBQLN2 Accelerates Tau Proteinopathy” (Journal of Neuroscience, 2022), “RTL8 promotes nuclear localization of UBQLN2 to subnuclear compartments associated with protein quality control” (Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 2022), “Value of MRI Outcomes for Preventive and Early-Stage Trials in Spinocerebellar Ataxias 1 and 3” (Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 2026), and “Exposure to lead and incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and all-cause dementia in the United States” (Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 2026).

Professional Email: hpaulson@umich.edu