Preston Marx, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor and Former
Chairman, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

 

Preston has been a pioneering virologist who has a keen interest in the factors that influence the sexual transmission of SIV/HIV, namely the female reproductive hormones. His discovery that estrogen replacement could protect ovariectomized rhesus macaques against the acquisition of SIV, helped provide the scientific rationale for our R21 grant approval.  He has always recognized the potential role that activation of the endocannabinoid system could have on the prevention of HIV transmission, especially in women who are up to three times more likely to acquire HIV than their male peers.