OT - Three new lemurs take a bow in Madagascar

Reuters AlertNet - Three new lemurs take a bow in Madagascar

Research Center Applies for Permit to Experiment on Endangered Monkeys

Is the Endangered Species Act cramping your style? Maybe a charitable donation can make it go away. Oh, but please don't call it bribery. Be sure to consult the USFWS so they can protect your best interests over those of endangered species.


Research Center Applies for Permit to Experiment on Endangered Monkeys

The debate on primate experimentation

There is literally a debate planned in the UK, where 130 MPs have already signed a charter that would prohibit all primate experimentation.

See: BUAV: Debate on primate experimentation

Point: Experimentation on apes is unethical

Counterpoint: There is a clear distinction between humans and other great apes thus experimentation is justified.

Bright lines and distinctions aren't the hallmark of evolution - think continuity.

Self-injury

Scientific studies suggest that 25-35% of primates kept in laboratories engage in self-injury. Among monkeys, males are more likely to injure themselves than females. Risk factors for self-injury include:

1) separation from the mother before 18 months of age , i.e. slightly beyond the natural age of weaning in macaques.
2) the age at which an individual was first placed in solitary housing
3) the amount of time spent in solitary housing
4) duration in captivity
5) the frequency and intensity of experimental procedures, including blood draws

A study released today suggested that self-injury is relatively common at two Ivy League schools - roughly 17%. For humans, females were more likely that males to self-injure. Furthermore, some proportion of students who reported self-injury also reported seeking medical attention for their injuries (7%).

Self-injury is prevalent among college students, survey shows

In humans, self-injury was considered to be the result of fewer available coping mechanisms and an increase in stressful situations.

The risk factors for non-human primates could be considered analogous, in that they represent experiences that negatively impact coping ability or the powerful stressors. Captivity represents both a stressor and a constraint on coping, for example.

In the case of human and non-human primates, self-injury is a pathology that warrants immediate treatment, particularly because it is progressive and resistant to treatment in extreme forms.

3 Rs: Reduction (maybe) Brain on chip

Scientists have developed a special "brain on a chip" technology which allows scientists to measure precisely the activity of certain brain cells and to potentially measure the effects of drugs. Problem is, the chip is made from rat brains. What we really need is a chip of human brain cells. My guess is that folks aren't busy worrying about rat medicine.

The availability of the chips might reduce the number of live rats needed for experiments in the future, but the rats remain the source of the chip's material. And the brain cells mounted on the chip may require in vivo manipulations before they can be used.

Why, I wonder, aren't human brains from people who have donated their bodies to science being place on these chips if the goal is to study human brain function and medicines?


Brain on chip