Steven M. Paul
Steven M. Paul is an American neuroscientist and pharmaceutical executive. As of 2021, Paul serves as the CEO, president and chairman of Karuna Therapeutics. Career Paul received his B.S. (1972) and M.D. (1975) degrees from Tulane University. Following a residency in psychiatry at the University of Chicago, he joined the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 1976. In 1982, Paul and his colleague, Phil Skolnick, published their discovery that the ethyl ester of beta carboline-3-carboxylic acid (beta-CCE) triggered anxiety in people; the work was recognized as an example of the growing ability of neuroscientists to understand the biochemistry of emotions. In 1989, he was the senior scientist on a paper published in Nature that undercut the claim that mutations in a gene on chromosome 11 caused bipolar disorder, which previously had been hailed as evidence that studies of genetics would lead to definitive biomarkers for mental illnesses. Around this time, he became the scientific director of intramural research at NIMH. Paul moved to Eli Lilly and Company in 1993 as vice president for central nervous system discovery research and decision-phase medical research. He was described by a New York Times reporter in 1996 as being "one of those at