Paul has dedicated his career to research, and he played an important role in establishing the collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that began a more than 20-year journey in cystic fibrosis research and drug discovery. He joined Aurora Biosciences in 1996, which was acquired by Vertex in 2001. Paul leads our San Diego research site and, since 2003, the team has discovered more than 10 novel compounds, including the first cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) modulators to enter clinical development. In addition, he serves as the Disease Area Executive for our pain program. 

He holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in physiology from the University of California at Berkeley, and he completed postdoctoral work at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Irvine in the areas of epithelial biology, biophysics and immunology.  

In 2018, Paul was named one of the winners of the prestigious Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for “transformative discoveries in the fields of genetics, physiology, pulmonology and pharmacology that led to the development of life-altering precision-targeted treatments for the devastating multi-organ disease cystic fibrosis.”