Parag G. Patil, M.D., Ph.D.

Parag G. Patil, M.D., Ph.D. joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 2005. A native of Pennsylvania, he attended MIT where he received a Bachelors of Science in electrical engineering. After graduation, he was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study philosophy and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford University in the UK. On returning to the US, Dr. Patil pursued combined medical and doctoral studies in biomedical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University as a fellow of the Medical Scientist Training Program of the NIH/NIGMS. His doctoral dissertation focused upon the presynaptic regulation of voltage-gated calcium channels, and for this work, he was awarded the Michael Shanoff Research Prize for the most outstanding research contribution in the School of Medicine.

The study of signaling between neurons led to a strong clinical interest in neurosurgery. During residency at Duke University, he was awarded an NIH postdoctoral fellowship to help develop brain-machine interface neuroprosthetic devices, which read electrical signals directly from the brain and control external actuators, such as robotic arms. This research was featured in Time magazine and on the cover of Neurosurgery. Following residency, Dr. Patil obtained additional clinical expertise through a fellowship in functional and deep brain stimulation surgery with Dr. Andres Lozano at the University of Toronto.