Yerkes National Primate Research Center


The Yerkes National Primate Research Center located in Atlanta, Georgia, is owned by Emory University, is a center of biomedical and behavioral research, is dedicated to improving human and animal health, and is the oldest of seven National Primate Research Centers partially funded by the National Institutes of Health. It is known for its nationally and internationally recognized biomedical and behavioral studies with nonhuman primates by Emory University.
Its Main Station contains most of the center's biomedical research laboratories. The center also includes the Living Links Center and the Yerkes Field Station near Lawrenceville, Georgia.

History

The center was established in 1930 by Robert Yerkes, in Orange Park, Florida, associated then with Yale University. Yerkes was a pioneering primatologist who specialized in comparative psychology.
In 1965, it relocated to its present location on the campus of Emory University.

Satellite locations

The Field Station is a part of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, houses 3,400 animals, specializes in behavioral studies of primate social groups, and is located northeast of Atlanta on of wooded land.
The Living Links Center is a part of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and is run by primatologist Frans De Waal. Located at the Yerkes Main Station on the Emory campus, work is also carried out at the Field Station.

Research

at the Yerkes research center is primarily aimed at development of medical treatments and vaccines. Research programs include cognitive development and decline, childhood visual defects, organ transplantation, the behavioral effects of hormone replacement therapy and social behaviors of primates. Yerkes researchers also are leading programs to better understand the aging process, pioneer organ transplant procedures and provide safer drugs to organ transplant recipients, determine the behavioral effects of hormone replacement therapy, prevent early onset vision disorders and shed light on human behavioral evolution. Researchers have had success creating transgenic rhesus macaque monkeys with Huntington's disease and hope to breed a second generation of macaques with the genetic disorder.

Controversy

Yerkes has long been the target of protest for its treatment of animals. This was especially true after the release of Frederick Wiseman's 1974 film Primate, which was shot at Yerkes and depicted primates undergoing surgical procedures, as well as a transcardial perfusion and brain extraction.
Yerkes' proposal to do AIDS-related research on endangered sooty mangabey monkeys drew opposition from numerous primatologists, including Jane Goodall.
Yerkes Center research assistant Elizabeth Griffin became the first work-related death in the center's history on December 10, 1997, due to herpes B virus. Griffin apparently became infected after a fluid exposure to the eye which occurred while helping to move a caged rhesus macaque at the Yerkes Field Station. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ultimately fined the center $105,300 in 1998 after a 19-week investigation. The event led to reforms in safety protocols for handling research primates.
On June 15, 2011, at the Field Station, personnel determined that Ep13, a non-infected female rhesus macaque, was missing. On August 16, 2011, the search for Ep13 ended.

Directors