For over five decades, countless breakthroughs and contributions to medicine have been coming out of the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC). Important research contributions include the following:
Our research has advanced our knowledge of COVID-19, created a successful diagnosis test, and led to vaccine development. Our work is impacting how we understand, treat, and prevent COVID-19 and future coronavirus outbreaks.
Due to our development and testing of tenofovir (PMPA), HIV-infected mothers can give birth to HIV-free infants and HIV-infected people can live long and healthy lives. Tenofovir has become the key ingredient of successful prophylaxes, and is the most commonly used anti-HIV drug in the world.
Our research found a link between environmental tobacco smoke exposure and adverse effects on prenatal, neonatal and childhood lung development, cognitive function, and brain development
Our research has advanced the understanding of developmental timelines in the kidney, and applied these findings to new protocols and tissue engineering approaches to regenerate kidneys damaged by obstructive disease.
Novel development of therapies at the CNPRC are being used to treat patients with Alzheimer’s Disease. Ongoing research is demonstrating that reversal of damage and restoration of brain function is possible.
Our research discovered a link between an infant’s temperament and asthma – research is leading towards the screening, prediction and prevention of lung disease in children
The Center has supported studies in young monkeys for IND (Investigational New Drug) applications for treating children with Pompe disease.
Research at the CNPRC has shown that exposure to high levels of fine particle pollution (e.g. wildfire smoke) adversely affects both development of the immune system and lung function
A vaccine modeling HCMV infection proved safe and effective with the rhesus macaque model and developed the first-of-its-kind approach to preventing HCMV infection inducing broader immunological protection
BPA exposure in utero has been shown to cause adverse changes in fetal lung, oocyte and mammary gland development in CNPRC studies
In a major advance, our research defined a link between maternal auto-antibodies and increased risk of a child having autism
In order to successfully treat human disease with stem cells, physicians will require safe, reliable, and reproducible measures of engraftment and function of the donor cells. Studies at the CNPRC have revolutionized the ability to monitor stem and progenitor cell transplant efficiency in fetal and infant monkeys, and have applied new noninvasive imaging techniques that demonstrated long-term engraftment and safety.
