What is potentially exciting about this research is the demonstration that the early stages of gut inflammation and damage can be intervened by the targeted probiotic bacteria. The mucosal lining of the human gastrointestinal tract is on the frontline of immune defenses, crucial in preventing infection and controlling the spread of [...]
“For myself and the thousands of people your research efforts may someday impact I want to thank you and wish you the best.” J., CMV patient As a busy Director of both the CNPRC and the Center for Comparative Medicine, Dr. Peter Barry makes time in his hectic schedule to [...]
In a study published in Science Translational Medicine on September 3, 2014, researchers from the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) at UC Davis and from UC San Francisco have shown that breast-and bottle-fed infant rhesus macaques develop different immune systems. Although the researchers expected that different diets would promote [...]
The recent deadly outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa has highlighted the key role of nonhuman primate biomedical research in developing critically needed treatments and vaccines for emerging infectious diseases. Scientists around the world have pursued different strategies for development of a preventative vaccine and an effective treatment for [...]
Using an exciting, first of its kind method and making great strides in understanding the biology of autism, Sara Freeman, PhD, postdoctoral researcher at the CNPRC, is the first develop a novel protocol using selective oxytocin receptor ligands to locate and map oxytocin receptors in rhesus monkey brains (“The neuroanatomical [...]
Scientists discuss the importance of primate models for advancing knowledge in biomedical and biological research. Presenting an honest, forthright discussion of the ethical considerations of using nonhuman primates (NHP) in research, and demonstrating the vital role NHP have played in many of the medical and scientific advances of the past [...]
Research links sugar consumption to disrupted ovarian function in healthy animals CNPRC housed rhesus monkeys fed relatively low doses of dietary sugar over 6 months showed significant impairments in oocyte maturation and major changes in early embryo gene expression, according to researchers Charles L. Chaffin, PhD (University of Maryland School [...]
The newly completed CNPRC Respiratory Disease Center (RDC) held an open house on February 27th to celebrate the construction of a state-of-the-art 19,000 square-foot wet laboratory and inhalation exposure facility that will set the standards for research in respiratory health. The CNPRC has been a leader in understanding primate lung [...]
A fascinating collaboration was recently conducted between disparate interests: the CNPRC, UC Davis’ Department of Statistics and Department of Economics, the International Institute for Human-Animal Networks, and the Department of Population Health & Reproduction at the School of Veterinary Medicine. In a study comparing the behaviors of outdoor-housed rhesus macaque [...]
During June and July 2008, almost 2,000 wildfires ignited in Northern California, leading to high levels of inhalable particulate matter (PM) in the Sacramento Valley that lasted for almost two weeks. PM2.5 (the terminology for inhalable particles smaller than 2.5 microns) at the UC Davis campus were recorded at 50 [...]
A UC Davis team, co-led by Alice Tarantal, PhD, and Peter Belafsky, MD, MPH, PhD, has received a $4.4 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for their project entitled “Tissue Engineered Recellularized Laryngotracheal Implants”, which proposes to develop a stem cell-derived airway transplant to cure a difficult, life-threatening [...]
An experimental vaccine modeling human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection — which can endanger developing fetuses, transplant recipients, patients co-infected with HIV and others who have a weakened immune system — proved safe and effective in research conducted at the CNPRC using the rhesus macaque model. A team of scientists from the [...]
The flu season can be deadly for thousands of elderly people each year. There is a critical public health need to improve the effectiveness of influenza vaccines. Seminal research results were recently released by Drs. Chris Miller, DVM, PhD, CNPRC Core Scientist, and Tim Carroll, PhD, Post-doctoral scholar at the [...]
Collaborative efforts add critical information to understanding effects of BPA BPA (bisphenol A), is used in the manufacturing of various plastics and food packaging, consumer products, some paper receipts, and medical devices. It is controversial because it exerts weak, but detectable, hormone-like properties which can mimic estrogen and may lead [...]
In a major advance in understanding risk factors, and possible means of prevention of autism, Melissa Bauman, PhD, and David Amaral, PhD, performed studies at the CNPRC with rhesus monkeys to further define the role that maternal antibodies have to play in the risk of a child having autism. The research was [...]
Dr. Karen Bales, CNPRC Brain, Mind, and Behavior (BMB) Unit Leader, has done extensive research on the hormone oxytocin and its short and long-term effects on behavior in two monogamous species – prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) and titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus). She is particularly interested in the role of neuropeptides [...]
Exposure of pregnant monkeys to the widely-used chemical bisphenol A (BPA) disrupts development of fetal ovaries, potentially causing birth defects and reproductive problems that would not emerge for a generation, according to research by Dr. Patricia Hunt and colleagues at Washington State University and Dr. Catherine VandeVoort at the CNPRC. [...]
Tenofovir (Viread), an antiretroviral HIV drug first shown by the CNPRC to be safe and effective in treating monkeys that were infected with SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus), has once again been used as the key ingredient in a pair of successful HIV preventative studies. The two new studies, by the [...]
Adding important new findings to extensive scientific evidence that Bisphenol A (BPA) is a harmful substance, Dr. Catherine VandeVoort, staff scientist in Reproductive Sciences and Regenerative Medicine at the CNPRC, has been part of a team effort investigating the effects of BPA on the fetal development in nonhuman primates and [...]
The GI tract is considered a major 'battlefield' between the immune system and HIV. The intestinal mucosa is the site of early infection and aggressive transmission for HIV, making it the first line of defense against the infection. A better understanding of what happens in the GI tract may lead [...]
