Nikolaus Mcfarland MD, PhD

Dr. Nikolaus McFarland, MD, PhD, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Florida and a board-certified neurologist and movement disorders specialist at the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. He holds the Wright/Falls/Simmons Professorship in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and Atypical Parkinson’s disorders. Dr. McFarland began his career as a neuroscientist before pursuing medicine to more directly impact patient care, earning both his MD and PhD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

He completed his neurology residency at the University of Virginia in 2006, followed by fellowship training in movement disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital and postdoctoral research at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease. During his time in Boston, he also served as an Instructor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

In 2010, Dr. McFarland joined the University of Florida faculty as a member of the Movement Disorders Division and the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease (CTRND), where he works to bridge laboratory discoveries with patient-centered care. He treats a broad range of movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, tremor, and dystonia, with particular expertise in atypical Parkinsonian conditions such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), multiple system atrophy (MSA), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and corticobasal syndrome.

He directs a comprehensive, multidisciplinary clinical research program focused on atypical Parkinson’s disorders and leads a clinic recognized as a CurePSP Center of Care. Additionally, he directs the University of Florida Huntington Disease Society of America (HDSA) Center of Excellence and participates in multiple clinical trials investigating therapies for Parkinson’s disease, atypical Parkinson’s disorders, and Huntington disease, driven by a commitment to improving the lives of patients and their families through compassionate care and innovative research.