Author and self-help guru Deepak Chopra and neuroscientist Vilayanur Subramanian "V.S." Ramachandran, who led a lab at UCSD, were named in emails connected to the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, according to files released by the DOJ as recently as Jan. 30. The connections between the three scientists reached the UCSD campus after a story was published on UCSD's student-run newspaper, which shared details from Epstein files. In a statement to CBS News, Chopra stated that Epstein was introduced to me by Barnaby Marsh, former CEO of the Templeton Foundation, and expressed interest in learning meditation. He also mentioned that Epstein had struggled with sleep and had visited Ramachaandran's lab at UC San Diego to learn about ongoing brain research. The DOJ files indicate that Epstein, who founded a company in 1988 that managed the wealth of billionaires, kept a busy schedule years after his release from prison, including a lunch with Chopra in April 2019. In lawsuits, one of the women who accused Epstein of arranging sexual encounters with the teen and influential people, Virginia Giuffre, said when she was 17, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell arranged sexual encounters.