TheEmory National Primate Research Center (formerly known asYerkes National Primate Research Center)[1] located inAtlanta, Georgia, owned byEmory University,[2] is a center of biomedical and behavioral research, is dedicated to improving human and animal health, and is the oldest of sevenNational Primate Research Centers partially funded by theNational Institutes of Health. It is known for its nationally and internationally recognized biomedical and behavioral studies with nonhuman primates by Emory University.
Its 25-acre (10 ha)Main Station contains most of the center's biomedical research laboratories. The center also includes the Living Links Center and the 117-acre (47 ha) Field Station nearLawrenceville, Georgia.
The center was established in 1930 byRobert Yerkes, inOrange Park, Florida, associated then withYale University. Yerkes was a pioneeringprimatologist who specialized incomparative psychology.
In 1965, it relocated to its location on the campus of Emory University.[3]
In April 2022, Emory University removed Yerkes' name from the center, after a review by Emory's Committee on Naming Honors recommended that the name be changed due to Yerkes' past support foreugenics.[4] The Yerkes National Primate Research Center is now known as the Emory National Primate Research Center, effective June 1, 2022.[5][6]
TheField Station is a part of the Emory National Primate Research Center, houses 3,400 animals, specializes in behavioral studies of primate social groups, and is located 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Atlanta[7] on 117 acres (47 ha) of wooded land.
TheLiving Links Center is a part of the Emory National Primate Research Center and was formerly run by primatologistFrans De Waal.[8] Located at the center's Main Station on the Emory campus, work is also carried out at the Field Station.
Multidisciplinarymedical research at the research center is primarily aimed at development ofmedical treatments andvaccines. Research programs includecognitive development and decline, childhoodvisual defects,organ transplantation, thebehavioral effects ofhormone replacement therapy andsocialbehaviors of primates.[9] Researchers are also leading programs to better understand the aging process, pioneerorgan transplant procedures and provide safer drugs to organ transplant recipients, determine the behavioral effects ofhormone replacement therapy, prevent early onsetvision disorders and shed light onhuman behavioral evolution.[9][10] Researchers have had success creating transgenic rhesus macaque monkeys withHuntington's disease and hope to breed a second generation of macaques with the genetic disorder.[11]
The center has long been the target of protest for its treatment of animals. This was especially true after the release ofFrederick Wiseman's 1974 filmPrimate,[12][13] which was shot at the research center and depicted primates undergoing surgical procedures, as well as a transcardialperfusion and brain extraction.
The center's proposal to do AIDS-related research on endangeredsooty mangabey monkeys drew opposition from numerous primatologists, includingJane Goodall.[14]
Emory National Primate Research Center research assistant Elizabeth Griffin[15][16] became the first work-related death in the center's history on December 10, 1997, due toherpes B virus.[17] Griffin apparently became infected after a fluid exposure to the eye which occurred while helping to move a cagedrhesus macaque at the Field Station. TheOccupational Safety and Health Administration ultimately fined the center $105,300 in 1998 after a 19-week investigation.[18] The event led to reforms in safety protocols for handling research primates.
On June 15, 2011, at the Field Station, personnel determined thatEp13, a non-infected female rhesus macaque, was missing.[19][20] On August 16, 2011, the search forEp13 ended.
In December 2014, a macaque was found dead in an enclosure adjacent to the one in which she was supposed to be housed. Staff at the facility failed to notice that the macaque was not in the correct enclosure.[21]
In January 2015, a macaque was euthanized after being in distress for at least two weeks. A necropsy revealed that the macaque was in distress because staff had applied a rubber band to the animal during application of an identification tattoo, but had failed to remove the rubber band.[22]
In December 2015, a male macaque was euthanized after being sick from surgery a week prior. A necropsy revealed that the macaque was sick as a result of a piece of gauze being left in his abdomen during surgery, which caused adhesions and intestinal obstruction.[23]
In July 2017, a primate was mistakenly euthanized after a technician mistakenly entered the wrong code into the euthanization schedule.[24]
In August 2017, a primate had to be given surgery after a gauze sponge was left in its abdomen from a different surgery a week prior.[24]
In August 2021, a female macaque died after her leg got caught in a gap in the wall of her housing facility. An investigation determined that the housing facility was not constructed properly.[25]
In October 2021, the USDA reported that the center had not properly cleaned food waste from several macaque housing enclosures. It was reported that food waste had not been cleaned up for three to four weeks. In some cases, the accumulation of food waste prevented drainage of rainwater, attracted flies, and started to accumulate mold.[25]
| Name | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Yerkes (Founder of Yerkes Center; PhDHarvard; known for work in comparative psychology) | 1930 | 1941 |
| Karl Lashley (PhDJohns Hopkins University ingenetics; psychologist and behaviorist; remembered for his contributions to the study of learning and memory) | 1941 | 1955 |
| Henry Wieghorst Nissen[26][27] (Professor ofPsychobiology atYale &Emory; leading authority on the biology and psychology of primates) | 1955 | 1958 |
| Arthur J. Riopelle[28] (doctorate inexperimental psychology,primatologist) | 1959 | 1962 |
| Geoffrey H. Bourne (University of Oxford DSc and PhD; histochemistry andcell biology,primatology) | 1962 | 1978 |
| Frederick (Fred) A. King[29][30] (main focus was the interaction betweencognitive andlimbic functions) | 1978 | 1994 |
| Thomas R. Insel[31] (now director ofNational Institute of Mental Health) | 1994 | 1999 |
| Thomas P Gordon[32] (became Head, Neuroscience Center) | 1999 | 2002 |
| Stuart Zola[33][34] (one of the nation's leading neuroscientists) | 2002 | 2014 |
| R. Paul Johnson, M.D.[35] (former chairman of Division of Immunology and professor of medicine atHarvard Medical School; Board Certified in Internal Medicine with a Certification in Infectious Diseases; research interests include identification ofimmune responses) | 2014 | present |
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