Bill and Marta Marko’s generosity helped launch what has become a model of interdisciplinary brain research

As a neuroscience PhD student at Tulane University, India Pursell is conducting research that could deepen scientists’ understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and depression. Outside the lab, Pursell is equally passionate about bringing neuroscience into classrooms and communities across New Orleans.

Neuroscientist Elizabeth Engler-Chiurazzi has coined a phrase describing what she believes scientists owe the communities they serve: neuroscience philanthropy. Since arriving at Tulane in 2020 as both a researcher and the Tulane Brain Institute’s director of community outreach, she has reached thousands through her programs.

Minokadeh spent seventeen years at Tulane, ultimately earning an MD/PhD, before relocating to Beverly Hills, where he has practiced cosmetic dermatology for nearly a decade.

Through the Brain Institute, Mary Lorino conducted hands-on undergraduate neuroscience research

Neuroscience is one of Tulane’s most popular undergraduate majors, graduating more than 100 students a year. The Tulane Brain Institute gave the program its home — and Beth Wee, who helped found the major in 2000 and has spent her career teaching its students, helped shape what it has become.

Neuroscientist Jonathan Fadok’s groundbreaking discovery of a previously unknown brain pathway, published in Nature in 2024, could one day inform clinical treatments for PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder and other stress-related conditions affecting millions.

A virologist by training, Kevin Zwezdaryk has spent his career investigating how viruses alter cells. But to pursue a specific question — whether viral infections impact cognition, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia — he needed expertise outside his field. He found it at the Tulane Brain Institute.

The institute’s collaborative model helped land a $14 million grant on estrogen and brain health.

The Brain Institute director leads a Tulane-wide community of scientists across three pillars: research, education and community outreach.