The Generative Brain
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Touro University (Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Montana)

Touro University is a private United States university system founded in New York in 1970, with over 20,000 students across many schools. Its Montana medical school, the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine campus in Great Falls (TouroCOM Montana), opened on 7 August 2023. Its only visible prion link is through the McLaughlin Research Institute in the same town. In 2024 the institute joined the Touro system as an affiliated entity with operational independence and was renamed the Weissman Hood Institute at Touro. The institute head is also TouroCOM Montana Dean of Research. TouroCOM Montana is named as a partner on the institute's NIH COBRE centre grant P20 GM152335, one of whose four projects profiles chronic wasting disease (CWD), the deer and elk prion disease. Touro itself runs no human prion disease clinic, test, trial or programme on any page opened. The prion relevance is thin and indirect, and most of it already sits in org-mclaughlin. Information only.

Key facts

  • Touro was established in 1970 by Bernard Lander, enrolled its first class in 1971 and reports over 20,000 students; this is context only and has no prion content.
  • TouroCOM opened its Great Falls campus on 7 August 2023 in a 100,000 square foot building, planned for up to 500 medical students at full size, with Benefis Health System named as a clinical affiliate; the opening page does not mention the McLaughlin institute or any research.
  • In 2024 the McLaughlin Research Institute joined the Touro University system as an affiliated entity and kept operational independence; it was the second such tie between Touro and a medical research organisation, and 76 TouroCOM students had already done research there.
  • In September 2024 the institute was renamed the Weissman Hood Institute at Touro, described by Touro as a new alliance with TouroCOM Montana.
  • The institute director, Renee Reijo Pera, is also Dean of Research at TouroCOM Montana; Touro does not describe any further governance link.
  • The NIGMS COBRE award P20 GM152335 (1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028, about 8.4 million US dollars obligated so far) is held by the McLaughlin institute, not Touro, and names TouroCOM Montana and Benefis as research partners; one of its four projects is Comprehensive Phenotypic Profiling of Chronic Wasting Disease, beside a Gene Editing and Mouse Models core.
  • AACOM describes the same centre as a 13.8 million US dollar, five-year NIH award that builds on the TouroCOM Montana partnership and gives its faculty, students and clinicians research training.
  • The TouroCOM Montana research page lists CWD among the institute's neurodegeneration topics and describes the institute building as having an enhanced BSL-2 lab equipped for prion research, a transgenic mouse core and an accredited mouse facility.
  • A TouroCOM faculty member who is also the institute's attending veterinarian runs a lab on early detection and genetic susceptibility in CWD; local news describes the work as PRNP gene variant studies in wild Montana deer, elk and moose using state surveillance samples, and notes CWD is not known to infect humans.
  • Under the Touro affiliated name, the institute ran the mouse work for a 2026 PrP turnover study with the Broad prion group, funded in part by the COBRE award on which TouroCOM is a partner.

Timeline

  1. 1970Touro founded in New York by Bernard Lander.
  2. 2023TouroCOM Montana campus opens in Great Falls.
  3. 2024Start of NIGMS COBRE award P20 GM152335 to the McLaughlin institute with TouroCOM Montana as partner, running to 2028-12-31.
  4. 2024McLaughlin Research Institute renamed the Weissman Hood Institute at Touro.
  5. 2024Montana Free Press reports the institute has joined the Touro system as an affiliated entity.
  6. 2025Touro news story names the institute director as TouroCOM Montana Dean of Research.
  7. 2026PLoS Pathogens PrP turnover paper with mouse work at the Touro affiliated institute, part funded by the COBRE award.
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