Oregon National Primate Research Center

The Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) is one of eight federally funded National Primate Research Centers in the United States and has been affiliated with Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) since 1998. The center is located on 350 acres of land west of Portland, Oregon, in Hillsboro. Originally known as the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC), it was the first of the original seven primate centers established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The research center is funded and administered by the National Center for Research Resources.

History
Construction of the facility began in 1961 after a $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. It was built on 240 acres in Washington County and opened in 1962. In 1970, the Oregon location became the first of the regional centers to build and use outdoor breeding facilities. By 1976 the campus housed 18 different species and 2,100 total animals while employing 225 people.

In 1988, the Center adds the Cooley Center for Cell and Molecular Biology to the campus, followed by the Animal Services Building in 1992. OHSU takes over in 1998 when the center is merged into the university. In 2002, the Center is renamed from the Oregon Regional Primate Center to the current name after the NIH changes the designation of all the primate research centers.

Facility
The Oregon National Primate Research Center maintains a monkey colony (consisting of rhesus monkeys, Japanese snow monkeys, vervets, baboons and cynomolgus macaques), which, as of 2006, included over 3600 animals used to conduct basic and applied biomedical research in fertility control, early embryo development, women's health, brain development and degeneration, and newly emerging viruses, especially AIDS-related agents. The ONPRC receives $11 million in federal grants annually.

Research
Scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Center have published several notable research projects. Recent publications include:
 * Research suggesting a component of the immune system damaged by AIDS can possibly be replaced
 * Research explaining how reduced caloric intake may slow aging and weakening of the immune system
 * Discovery of a method for detecting intra-amniotic infections in non-human primates. It is hoped by the researchers that the finding may result in the development of a test for common infections that cause premature birth in humans
 * Research that has identified factors that prevent the repair of brain damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS), complications of premature birth, and other diseases and conditions
 * Several findings in the area of obesity research including the role of the hormone leptin in causing/preventing obesity and how leptin resistance occurs and can be reversed ;and research into the natural hormone PYY which has the ability to cause limited weight loss
 * Research at the Oregon National Primate Research Center has shown that eating a high fat diet during pregnancy may have significant and numerous health impacts on an unborn child
 * Identification of a key gene that impacts the timing of puberty and can shorten the time span for reproduction

Animal Care Oversight
The Oregon National Primate Research Center receives unannounced inspections by the United States Department of Agriculture approximately twice a year. The research center has also been accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International since 1975. As required by the Animal Welfare Act, the Oregon National Primate Research Center receives additional oversight from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Each IACUC must consist of at least one veterinarian with training in laboratory animal science and expertise in the species under consideration, at least one practicing research scientist, and at least one person not affiliated with the institution to represent community interests in proper care and use of animals.

Criticism
In 2000, an undercover animal rights investigator posing as a laboratory technician released hours of video footage taken from inside the Oregon National Primate Research Center. The facility was accused of violating federal laws and ignoring signs of distress among the rhesus monkeys housed there. The video showed a monkey with its arms wrapped in duct tape to prevent the animal from mutilating itself as well as footage of an electroejaculation procedure, used to collect semen for reproductive experiments. The USDA eventually cleared the ONPRC of any wrongdoing for the incidents.

Jane Goodall, the noted field research primatologist, has decried the conditions of captive research facilities, including ONPRC, contending primates suffer most terribly from being kept in isolation from others of their kind. Goodall notes that primates exhibit the same kind of clinical symptoms that depressed human children show.