Dear IBBS Colleagues,
It is with profound sadness that we wish to notify you of the recent passing of Professor Edward A. Neuwelt on February 10, 2026 at the age of 77.
Professor Neuwelt was a treasured friend, valued colleague and longtime leader in our field, dating back to his initial work on osmotic blood-brain barrier disruption in the 1970s (e.g. Neuwelt et al. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 1979). He was most recently a Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery and a faculty member for the Neuroscience Graduate Program and the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Graduate Program at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland. Professor Neuwelt completed his M.D. at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, graduating magna cum laude in 1972. He next did a neurosurgical residency at UT-Southwestern from 1972-1978, during which time he also completed a two-year neuro-oncology research fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NIH) and a Neurosurgery research fellowship at Queen Square Hospital (London). Professor Neuwelt served from 1978-1981 as Chief of the Neurosurgery service at Dallas Veterans Administration Hospital and Assistant Professor in Surgery & Biochemistry at UT-Southwestern Medical School before joining the full-time faculty at OHSU in 1981, where he remained for the rest of his career.
Ed, as he was known to many of us, is recognized for many major accomplishments both within and outside of the CNS barriers field. He was a world class neurosurgeon with an early focus on treating brain cancer using hyperosmolar mannitol to open the BBB for the delivery of chemotherapeutics, work he began during his NIH fellowship in the 1970s. Indeed, Ed was among the first to present the concept that cancer in the brain may often act as a sanctuary site behind a functional blood-tumor barrier. He emphasized what was an important, novel idea at the time that brain cancer should be viewed as a 'whole brain disease’ and that new approaches would be needed in order to treat it effectively. Ed’s pioneering work on the BBB and brain cancers such as primary CNS lymphoma, a particular longstanding interest, provided some of the earliest successful examples of clinical translation in the CNS barriers field, work that he led and stimulated over many decades. Additionally, Ed made major contributions to other research areas in interventional neuro-oncology and neurosurgery, including radiation-induced encephalopathy, platinum chemotherapy-induced ototoxicity, use of iron oxide nanoparticles (e.g. ferumoxytol) for MRI, and innovative surgical approaches, to name a few. Ed’s research resulted in over 400 publications and book chapters, with over 32,000 citations to date and an h-index of 91 (Google Scholar).
Ed influenced several generations of CNS barriers scientists and an even larger number of clinicians and clinician scientists who trained with him in Portland. Ed’s leadership and reach extended to his playing key roles in many of the most important meetings for our field and through his always strong advocacy for a “bed- to-bench” perspective in our research community. Ed actively encouraged research focused on clinically pressing topics both at meetings and in personal conversations with many of us. Among these meetings, Ed served as principal organizer for the 3rd International Conference on Cerebral Vascular Biology in Salishan, Oregon in 1998. Importantly, Ed founded the Blood-Brain Barrier Consortium, an annual meeting held in Oregon that ran under his leadership for a quarter century, culminating in a 25th anniversary celebration meeting in 2019 that included NINDS Director Walter Koroshetz and other thought leaders from around the world. The BBB Consortium, a meeting known for often focusing uniquely on clinical BBB science and brain cancer in addition to other topics, continues today under the direction of Dr. Prakash Ambady (Providence Neuroscience Institute, Portland) and others who received valuable mentorship and active encouragement from Ed over many years to continue the meeting’s legacy. Several influential review publications that arose from these meetings continue to serve as markers for important concepts in our field still today (e.g. Neuwelt et al. Strategies to advance translational research into brain barriers. Lancet Neurology, 2008; Neuwelt et al. Engaging neuroscience to advance translational research in brain barrier biology. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2011).
Many of us will continue to look back and recall many wonderful memories with Ed over the years. He was a great man and a rigorous, principled clinician scientist who accomplished a tremendous amount during his 50+ year career. His legacy as a mentor, advocate for our field, and passionate translational scientist will live on. Ed’s phenomenal personal qualities endeared him to countless friends and colleagues in our field and undoubtedly to his many patients and their family members over the years. His unique sense of humor and wonderful laugh, his compassion and respect for others, along with the obvious love he expressed to friends and family were essential aspects of Ed’s personality. He will be deeply missed.
We express our sincerest condolences to his family members.