The Tulane National Biomedical Research Center was established in 1964 as the Delta Regional Primate Center, one of the original NIH-supported primate research centers created to provide specialized models, scientific expertise, and shared infrastructure for studying complex human disease using nonhuman primate models. Over the past six decades, the Center has grown from a primate research program into a broader national resource for infectious disease research, translational science, and public health preparedness.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Center became especially influential in HIV/AIDS research. Studies using simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) models helped define key mechanisms of viral transmission, pathogenesis, and immune injury, including early damage to the gut and reproductive tract. That work continues today through the NIH Simian Vaccine Evaluation Unit, the Cellular Immunology Laboratory, and broader Center research on viral reservoirs, long-term treated SIV/HIV infection, chronic immune activation, and related comorbidities.

Since establishing the nonhuman primate model of Lyme disease in 1991, the Center has built on more than three decades of leadership in Lyme disease research. Tulane remains the only institution with a nonhuman primate model of natural tick-borne Lyme disease infection. Center scientists developed the C6 diagnostic test used in veterinary medicine, helped shape scientific understanding of persistence in Lyme disease, and continues to advance diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments today. 

In 2004, the Center expanded its high-containment capabilities with a federal award for the construction of a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory. Tulane remains the only National Primate Research Center with a co-located Regional Biocontainment Laboratory on site, a distinction that strengthens its leadership in aerobiology, biodefense, and research on high-consequence pathogens. It also maintains a federally regulated Select Agent Program. 

That infrastructure proved critical in early 2020, when Tulane became one of the first institutions approved to receive and study SARS-CoV-2, enabling rapid development of animal models to investigate infectiousness, pathogenesis, and long-term effects in the brain, heart, and kidneys. 

In 2025, the Center adopted the name Tulane National Biomedical Research Center to reflect the full breadth of its work across a National Primate Research Center, a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, and a federal Select Agent Program.

Today, the Center continues to advance biomedical discovery, strengthen preparedness for emerging public health threats, deepen understanding of the links between infectious disease and chronic illness, and integrate New Approach Methodologies alongside animal models to ensure that each scientific question is matched with the most appropriate research method and approach.