Paul Michael Riegelhaupt

Paul Michael Riegelhaupt, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, and an Assistant Attending Anesthesiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He joined the faculty in 2015 and divides his time between clinical work in the Weill Cornell Neuroanesthesia group and basic research on potassium channel physiology.

• Education: B.S. in Biology from MIT (2001), M.D./Ph.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine (2010).
• Postgraduate Training: Research track residency in Anesthesiology at UCSF, followed by postdoctoral work in Dr. Daniel Minor’s lab.

His research focuses on structural and functional characterization of potassium channels (e.g., TREK1, THIK1), their roles in chronic pain and anesthetic mechanisms, and antimalarial drug development through purine transporter studies. Recent work leverages cryo-EM and biophysical modeling to explore anesthetic inhibition of K2P channels.

Key trends in his publications include:

• Structural insights into anesthetic binding sites (2020-2025).
• Membrane-lipid interactions in channel gating (2014-2023).
• Mechanisms of purine transport in malaria parasites (2008-2010).

Awards and honors include:

• Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship (2002-2010).
• NIH Molecular Biophysics Training Grant (2006-2008).
• Junior Faculty Research Award, Association of University Anesthesiologists (2016).
• Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research grant (2017-2018).

He serves as Associate Program Director for the anesthesiology residency program and holds active grants as Principal Investigator (2019-2024, 2022-2027, 2023-2027) focused on potassium channels and anesthetic mechanisms.