Miles B. Brennan received his BS in Biology from Stanford University, later receiving his PhD in Biochemistry from the same institution. Miles pursued postdoctorate work both at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg, Germany, and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. He has taught at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the University of Maryland, and the University of Denver. Miles was elected to the Human Genome Organization in 1991.