World-renowned medical scholar Louis B. Flexner founded the Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in 1954. With the help of his wife and research assistant, Dr. Josefa Flexner, he continued his laboratory work and his research into the neurochemistry of memory until just before his death, at the age of 94.

In 1994, when he heard that the Biomedical Library might have to cancel some of its journals in the face of skyrocketing subscription costs, Dr. Flexner arranged a generous and unrestricted gift. The gift was meant, he said, both to meet the Library's needs and to express his high regard for its collections and its staff.

Income from the Flexner Fund is used to supplement the Biomedical Library acquisitions budget.