Paul M. Thompson, PhD

Paul Thompson is a Professor in the Keck School of Medicine of USC. His team’s research projects focus on the neuroscience, mathematics, computer science, software engineering and clinical aspects of neuroimaging and brain mapping.

Honored with the 2023 Pioneer in Medicine Award of the Society of Brain Mapping and Therapeutics, and the U.S. Alzheimer Association’s Zenith Award, Paul Thompson directs the ENIGMA Consortium, a global alliance of 2500 scientists in 47 countries who conduct the largest studies of 30 major brain diseases – ranging from Parkinson’s disease, anorexia, schizophrenia, depression, ADHD, bipolar illness and OCD, to HIV and addictions and their effects in the brain. ENIGMA’s genomic screens of over 70,000 people’s brain scans and genome-wide data (published in Nature Genetics, 2012; Nature, 2015; Science, 2020) have brought together experts from 300 institutions to unearth over 500 genetic variants that affect brain structure, disease risk, and brain connectivity. At USC, Dr. Thompson is a Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, Radiology, Pediatrics, Engineering, and Ophthalmology, and Director of the ENIGMA Center for Worldwide Medicine, Imaging & Genomics – a $11M NIH Center of Excellence in Big Data Computing. Using worldwide medication screens, ENIGMA discovers factors that affect progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, schizophrenia, depression and childhood brain disorders. Dr. Thompson also directs AI4AD – an $18M NIH Initiative on AI methods to accelerate Alzheimer’s disease research, discovering novel treatment targets; he directs the India ENIGMA Initiative – large-scale study of brain aging in India. He directs the USC Imaging Genetics Center – a group of 50 scientists in Marina del Rey. His team created the first maps of Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia spreading in the living brain, and a method to track brain growth in children. Dr. Thompson has an M.A. in mathematics and Greek and Latin Languages from Oxford University, and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.

Collaborating with imaging labs around the world, Dr. Thompson and his students have published over 1,500 publications (h-index: 206) describing novel mathematical and computational strategies for analyzing brain image databases, for detecting pathology in individual patients and groups, and for creating disease-specific atlases of the human brain.

Recent work has discovered new structural and functional brain changes during brain development and degeneration, Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias, schizophrenia and bipolar illness, HIV/AIDS, methamphetamine abuse, and autism. For many of these illnesses, Dr. Thompson’s Center is creating population-based tools to understand factors that resist them. New computational tools, developed in the lab, are used to map how these diseases spread in the living brain, and in drug trials and basic research studies.

• Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics: Pioneer in Medicine Award, 2023
• U.S. Alzheimer Association: Zenith Award, 2021
• Kent Innovations in Academia Award, 2015
• Di Chiro Outstanding Scientific Paper Award, 1998
• Eiduson Award for Neuroscience Research, 1998
• Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year, UCLA, UCLA Chancellor’s Service Award, 1998
• SPIE Medical Imaging Award, Best Paper, 1997

• Generative AI and Counterfactual Image Generation for Interpretable Alzheimer?s Disease Detection
  NIH · R21AG091332 · Sep 1, 2026 – Aug 31, 2028 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Global Initiative for Harmonized Functional MRI in Psychiatry
  NIH · R01MH142539 · Aug 6, 2026 – Jul 31, 2031 · Role: Principal Investigator
• CentileBrain: A Normative Modeling Framework for Brain Health and Disease
  NIH · R01MH134962 · Sep 1, 2025 – Jun 30, 2030 · Role: Principal Investigator
• MEGA-OCD: A Global Data-Driven Initiative to Discover Biosignatures of OCD
  NIH · R01MH138569 · Dec 2, 2024 – Oct 31, 2029 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Federated Deep Learning to Accelerate Alzheimer's Disease Research
  NIH · R01AG081571 · Sep 30, 2024 – Aug 31, 2029 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Federated Deep Learning to Accelerate Alzheimer's Disease Research
  NIH · RF1AG081571 · Sep 30, 2024 – Aug 31, 2029 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Worldwide Tractometry Initiative to Investigate Brain Microstructure, Cognitive Impairment & Dementia in Parkinsons Disease
  NIH · RF1NS136995 · Jun 1, 2024 – May 31, 2027 · Role: Principal Investigator
• The ENIGMA – Eating Disorders Initiative: A Global Neuroimaging Study of Anorexia and Factors Affecting Clinical Outcomes
  NIH · U01MH136221 · Apr 15, 2024 – Jan 31, 2029 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Understanding Rare Genetic Variation and Disease Risk: A Global Neurogenetics Initiative
  NIH · R01MH129858 · Jun 7, 2023 – Apr 30, 2028 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Global Deep Learning Initiative to Understand Outcomes in Major Depression
  NIH · R01MH131806 · Jun 1, 2023 – Mar 31, 2028 · Role: Principal Investigator
• ENIGMA Bipolar Initiative: A Global Study of Imaging Genomics & Clinical Outcomes
  NIH · R01MH129742 · Apr 1, 2022 – Jan 31, 2027 · Role: Principal Investigator
• ENIGMA Parkinson?s Initiative: A Global Initiative for Parkinson?s Disease
  NIH · R01NS107513 · Sep 1, 2021 – Aug 31, 2026 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Identifying brain networks to predict treatment resistance and post-surgical outcome: An ENIGMA-Epilepsy initiative
  NIH · R01NS122827 · Jul 15, 2021 – Jun 30, 2026 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Redefine Trans-Neuropsychiatric Disorder Brain Patterns through Big-Data and Machine Learning
  NIH · RF1MH123163 · Apr 1, 2021 – Mar 31, 2024 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• ENIGMA World Aging Center
  NIH · R01AG058854 · Jan 15, 2021 – Dec 31, 2025 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Ultrascale Machine Learning to Empower Discovery in Alzheimer?s Disease Biobanks
  NIH · U01AG068057 · Sep 15, 2020 – Jan 31, 2031 · Role: Principal Investigator
• FiberNET: Deep learning to evaluate brain tract integrity worldwide and in AD
  NIH · R01AG057892 · Sep 15, 2020 – Aug 31, 2025 · Role: Principal Investigator
• FiberNET: Deep learning to evaluate brain tract integrity worldwide and in AD
  NIH · RF1AG057892 · Sep 15, 2020 – Aug 31, 2024 · Role: Principal Investigator
• India ENIGMA Initiative for Global Aging & Mental Health
  NIH · R01AG060610 · Sep 1, 2019 – May 31, 2025 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Human Newborn Energy Homeostasis Brain Networks And Infant Adiposity
  NIH · R21DK118578 · Jul 1, 2019 – Jun 30, 2021 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• ENIGMA World Aging Center
  NIH · R56AG058854 · Sep 30, 2018 – Aug 31, 2020 · Role: Principal Investigator
• ENIGMA-SD: Understanding Sex Differences in Global Mental Health through ENIGMA
  NIH · R01MH116147 · May 23, 2018 – Feb 28, 2022 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Genomic Architecture of Functional Brain Networks in PTSD
  NIH · R01MH111671 · Sep 6, 2017 – Dec 31, 2026 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Highly-sensitive imaging markers for early detection of Alzheimer's Disease using multi-view connectomics
  NIH · R21AG056782 · Jul 15, 2017 – Dec 31, 2020 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Multi-Source Sparse Learning to Identify MCI and Predict Decline
  NIH · RF1AG051710 · Jun 1, 2016 – May 31, 2021 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• ENIGMA Center for Worldwide Medicine, Imaging & Genomics
  NIH · U54EB020403 · Sep 29, 2014 – Sep 30, 2020 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Growth factors, neuroinflammation, exercise, and brain integrity
  NIH · RF1AG041915 · Sep 15, 2014 – Jun 30, 2019 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Predicting Brain Changes in HIV/AIDS
  NIH · R01NS080655 · Aug 1, 2012 – Jul 31, 2017 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Empowering Personalized Medicine: Integrating Imaging, Genetics, and Biomarkers
  NIH · R01MH097268 · May 1, 2012 – Apr 30, 2016 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Alzheimer's disease risk analyzed using population imaging genomics
  NIH · R01AG040060 · Sep 1, 2011 – May 31, 2018 · Role: Principal Investigator
• HARDI Mapping of Disease Effects on the Brain
  NIH · R01EB008432 · Sep 30, 2009 – Feb 29, 2016 · Role: Principal Investigator
• A Multidimensional Alzheimer's Disease Brain Atlas
  NIH · R01EB008281 · Sep 5, 2007 – Jul 31, 2013 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Computational Modeling of High-Field MR Images
  NIH · R01EB007813 · Aug 1, 2007 – Apr 30, 2013 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Novel PDEs for Cortical Mapping and Analysis in Disease
  NIH · R21RR019771 · Sep 30, 2003 – Sep 30, 2006 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Algorithms to Map Disease &Genetic Effects on the Brain
  NIH · R21EB001561 · May 1, 2003 – Feb 28, 2007 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Laboratory of Neuro Imaging Resource (LONIR)
  NIH · P41EB015922 · Sep 30, 1998 – Feb 29, 2024 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator

• USC welcomes brains researchers Arthur Toga and Paul Thompson
• Genetic mutation linked to Alzheimer's disease doubles rate of brain tissue loss, USC study shows
• Renowned scientists lead cluster hire of new Trojans

• Toga, Arthur
• Jahanshad, Neda
• Peterson, Bradley
• Aisen, Paul
• Nayak, Krishna
• Wang, Danny