Contact
Research/Lab Website
Roles
Research Professor of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery
Endowed Frost Scholar
-
Biography
Born, raised, and schooled in a medieval town in Germany (Münster), I have studied medicine at the Universities of Würzburg/Germany, Vienna/Austria, and Berlin (FUB)/Germany. After performing my MD thesis work as visiting student at USF/Tampa and doing my internship/house officer training in Switzerland (University Hospitals Basel and Zürich), during my time as post-doc at Yale (Dpt. of Dermatology, 1987-90), I got increasingly intrigued by the biology of the hair follicle, an utterly fascinating microcosmic mini-organ, in which many of the most important biomedical frontiers can be exemplarily dissected under clinically relevant conditions. Since then, I have never been bored again...
This interest only grew stronger during my years as dermatology resident at the Virchow Hospital, Free University of Berlin/Germany (1990-95) and my subsequent time as junior faculty member in the Dpt. of Dermatology, Charité, Humboldt University, Berlin, and become steadily broadened to include the exploration of skin and hair follicle neuroendocrinology. My residency was interrupted by a Visiting Scholarship at the Dept. of Surgery, UCSD and at AntiCancer Inc., San Diego, CA (yes: for hair research purposes...), and a year of parental leave. My last clinical appointment was as Professor and Vice-Chair of the Dept. of Dermatology, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf/Germany, where I also served as Head of Outpatient Services and of the Dermatooncology and Allergy Units, ran a busy Hair Clinic, and was responsible for developing the dermatology curriculum, all while continuing research on the side (1999-2004).
Motivated by a very stimulating sabbatical as Visiting Professor at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Dept. of Molecular Medicine, in Munich-Martinsried/Germany, I decided to leave clinical medicine so as to focus in the future on translational skin and hair research in the human system by serving as Professor and Head of newly Experimental Dermatology Unit at the Dept. of Dermatology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck/Germany, which I built up (2005-2013).
Since 2008, this was complemented by a secondary academic affiliation as tenured Professor of Cutaneous Medicine at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, which became my primary academic home from 2013-2018 until moving to Miami. In 2021, I obtained a Doctor of Science degree for my body of work in hair follicle neuroendocrinology, and was recently appointed Professor Emeritus of the University of Manchester).
In 2018 I moved my center of gravity to Miami, where I work as Research Professor of Dermatology at UMMSM and as Director of our Dermatology Academic Training Program.
From 2007-2021, I have served as Editor of Experimental Dermatology, and I enjoy publishing our work (>700 PubMed-listed papers, h-index 105 [Scopus, 2022]. I am also what they seem to call a "serial entrepreneur" (founder: Cutech S.r.l./Italy, 2000-2005, Monasterium Laboratory/Germany www.monasteriumlab.com [since 2015] and CUTANEON/Germany www.cutaneon.com [since 2021]).
Most importantly, however, I am married to Silvia Bulfone, immunobiology professor in Manchester, whom I had met at Yale, and have 3 wonderful adult children (Anna, Lisa, Leo). To my immense regret, and their great loss, none of them shares my enthusiasm for the hair follicle. -
Teaching Interests
Skin and hair follicle biology
Impact of psychoemotional stress on skin and skin diseases
Alopecia -
Research Interests
We investigate the biology and pathology of the hair follicle and sebaceous gland. Our emphasis lies on translational research in the human system, on human hair follicle epithelial stem cells and melanocytes as well as on the pathobiology of hair diseases such as alopecia areata, frontal fibrosing alopecia, chemotherapy-induced alopecia and androgenetic alopecia. Moreover, the Paus Lab at UM has a major, long-standing interest in exploring the neuroendocrinology, neurobiology, and chemosensation biology of human skin and its appendages as well as in the exploration of hormonal strategies to promote wound healing. We are explore the role of psychoemotional stress and key stress mediator on cutaneous neuroinflammation, especially ion the context inflammatory hair diseases and hair greying, increasingly investigate the mitochondrial biology of human skin, and have recently begun to develop novel strategies to slow or reverse human skin aging. -
Publications
Disclaimer: The information presented in this section has been consolidated using AI and machine learning technologies. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, errors may occur. If you identify any inaccuracies, please use this link to inform our data team. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and helps us improve the quality of our content.