The Generative Brain
Weissman Hood Institute at Touro University logo

Weissman Hood Institute at Touro University

The Weissman Hood Institute at Touro University is the current name of the McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls, Montana, a small independent biomedical research charity that began in 1954 and has used mice as its core model system for decades. In September 2024, at its 70th anniversary, it was renamed for Irving Weissman and Leroy Hood and became an affiliated entity of Touro University alongside the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine campus in Great Falls, while keeping operational independence. The IRS record still carries the legal name McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, a 501(c)(3) public charity. For prion disease the institute matters for two reasons. First, under George Carlson it was a long-running mouse genetics partner of Stanley Prusiner on prion incubation time genes and strains, and in 2013 it received the first knock-in mouse models of fatal familial insomnia and E200K CJD in the United States. Second, from 2019 to 2026 its animal facility ran key in vivo work for the PrP lowering programme of Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel with Ionis, including the ASO survival studies, the anle138b trial in genetic prion mouse models and a 2026 study of PrP turnover in the brain. Its current institutional priorities, as described by Touro and the NIH centre grant, are broader neurodegeneration, aging and rural health, with chronic wasting disease as its main prion topic. It is a research site, not a clinic.

Key facts

  • The renaming is confirmed by the affiliated university: Touro states that in September 2024 the McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls was renamed the Weissman Hood Institute at Touro, marking 70 years and a new alliance with Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Montana, and honouring Irving Weissman and Leroy Hood.
  • The legal entity is McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, EIN 81-0459235, a 501(c)(3) public charity in Great Falls, Montana with a 1994 ruling year; its latest filing shown reports revenue of about 3.9 million US dollars, expenses of about 4.8 million and assets of about 14.1 million, with contributions and grants as the main revenue.
  • The institute joined Touro University as an affiliated entity in 2024 and keeps operational independence; its director described full independence without affiliations as hard to sustain.
  • Renee Reijo Pera, a stem cell and developmental biologist, has led the institute since March 2021 and is now listed as CEO, as Director of the NIH centre grant and as Dean of Research at TouroCOM Montana; she is not a prion researcher.
  • Facilities include an enhanced BSL-2 laboratory described as equipped for prion research and human subjects work, a transgenic mouse and cell line core and an AAALAC accredited animal resource centre of about 13,000 square feet that offers preclinical mouse studies at lower per diem rates than comparable sites.
  • Its main current federal award is an NIGMS COBRE centre grant, P20 GM152335, running 2024-01-01 to 2028-12-31, announced at about 13.8 million US dollars over five years with 8.4 million obligated so far; one of its four projects is phenotypic profiling of chronic wasting disease, alongside Alzheimer, macular degeneration and Parkinson projects and a gene editing and mouse models core.
  • George Carlson built a prion mouse genetics programme at the institute in close collaboration with Stanley Prusiner, with joint papers from 1989 to 2008 on the prion incubation time gene, strain properties and transgenic and congenic mice.
  • In August 2013 the FFI (D178N) and E200K knock-in mouse lines made by Walker Jackson were imported to Carlson at the institute, with Prion Alliance coordinating, to test drug candidates against genetic prion disease.
  • The institute ran in vivo work for the PrP lowering programme: a 2019 JCI Insight paper with NIAID Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Ionis and the Broad group showed ASOs against PrP extended survival of prion-infected mice, and a 2020 Nucleic Acids Research paper with Carlson and Cabin showed PrP lowering worked across disease stages and strains.
  • A 2023 Journal of Virology paper with Cabin as last author at the institute found that anle138b doubled survival in RML-infected mice but that the D178N and E200K knock-in models gave no clear efficacy endpoints, a caution on model choice for genetic prion drug studies; by then Carlson was listed at the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
  • Under the new name, a May 2026 PLoS Pathogens paper with the Broad group, Ionis and Gate Bio used isotopic labelling in mice run at the institute to estimate brain PrP half-life at about 5 to 6 days, relevant to how fast PrP lowering drugs can act; funders included NIH, the COBRE grant, Prion Alliance, Ionis and Gate Bio.
  • Current in-house prion work centres on chronic wasting disease and safe handling: a July 2026 paper sequenced the prion protein gene in 358 wild Montana mule deer and found 36 variants, and two 2026 papers address prion inactivation and biosafety in tissue histology.
  • Other recent support is local and philanthropic: a 5 million US dollar gift from Irving Weissman and Ann Tsukamoto-Weissman in October 2021, and a Murdock Trust funded mouse MRI awarded in fall 2024.

Timeline

  1. 1954Founding of the laboratory that became the institute, with the recruitment of Ernst Eichwald.
  2. 1989First Carlson and Prusiner paper from the institute on prion protein structure and scrapie isolate properties.
  3. 2013FFI and E200K knock-in mice arrive at the institute for George Carlson.
  4. 2019JCI Insight paper showing ASOs extend survival of prion-infected mice, with an institute coauthor.
  5. 2020Nucleic Acids Research paper on PrP lowering across stages, strains and endpoints with institute coauthors.
  6. 20215 million US dollar gift from Irving Weissman and Ann Tsukamoto-Weissman announced; Reijo Pera director since March 2021.
  7. 2023Journal of Virology paper on anle138b in mouse models of genetic prion disease, last author at the institute.
  8. 2024Start of the NIGMS COBRE centre grant P20 GM152335, running to 2028-12-31.
  9. 2024Renamed the Weissman Hood Institute at Touro at its 70th anniversary.
  10. 2024Montana Free Press reports the institute has joined Touro University as an affiliated entity with operational independence.
  11. 2025Murdock Trust reports a mouse MRI funded at the renamed institute in fall 2024.
  12. 2026PLoS Pathogens paper with the Broad group and Ionis on PrP turnover in vivo, with mouse studies run at the Weissman Hood Institute.
  13. 2026Frontiers in Veterinary Science paper from the institute on novel prion protein gene variants in wild Montana mule deer.
Sources for this page