Two U-M clinician-scientists will receive three-year grants to pursue translational medical research aimed at helping patients with life-altering neurological disorders, the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute has announced.
Dr. Henry Paulson has been appointed a Taubman Scholar and will receive $150,000 per year for three years to pursue research into the causes and treatments of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.
“I am honored to be selected a Taubman Scholar,” Paulson said. “With this award, the talented scientists in my lab can accelerate our push toward therapies for currently untreatable degenerative brain disorders.”
Paulson is the Lucile Groff Professor of Neurology for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders in the Department of Neurology. He joined the U-M faculty in 2007 and heads the Medical School’s programs in neurodegenerative diseases and is director of the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
Dr. Brad Foerster has been appointed a Taubman Emerging Scholar and will receive a grant of $50,000 per year for three years. He uses multiple advanced imaging techniques to study brain alterations in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
“I am thrilled to be selected as an Emerging Taubman Scholar,” said Foerster. “This award will allow me to study inflammatory changes in the brains of ALS patients and has the potential to reveal new opportunities for effective treatments.”
Foerster is an assistant professor of radiology at the Medical School, and is working to develop a more definitive imaging test for ALS in the hopes that earlier diagnosis will lead to more effective intervention. He also has a clinical practice and evaluates patients with aneurysms, strokes, multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.
The Taubman Institute, founded in 2007 with a gift from businessman and philanthropist A. Alfred Taubman, provides financial support to physician-researchers who combine an active patient practice with laboratory research aimed at finding new therapies for disease.
The Taubman Scholars program provides funding for selected senior Medical School faculty who also are distinguished research scientists. The Taubman Emerging Scholars program is designed to encourage talented early-career junior faculty members to stay in the research arena, providing funds to establish their laboratories and the credentials necessary to pursue other grants.
