Research Roundup: Monkeys and face recognition, animals advance AI, sugar to treat heart disease, and more!

Welcome to this week’s Research Roundup. These Friday posts aim to inform our readers about the many stories that relate to animal research each week. Do you have an animal research story we should include in next week’s Research Roundup? You can send it to us via our Facebook page or through the contact form … Continue reading Research Roundup: Monkeys and face recognition, animals advance AI, sugar to treat heart disease, and more!

Macaque study explores best route of oxytocin administration

Oxytocin is a natural brain peptide most commonly thought of as the “love hormone” for its role in social bonding: it spikes during social contact, play, cuddling, and sex. Because of extensive research in animals including prairie voles, sheep, and monkeys demonstrating that oxytocin promotes affiliative behaviors and social bonding1,2, oxytocin is increasingly being studied … Continue reading Macaque study explores best route of oxytocin administration

Primates in Medical Research – Free Literature

The following post by Richard Scrase of UAR discusses a new free e-book (also available as pdf) which Understanding Animal Research (UAR) and Moshe Bushmitz has produced. It's well worth a download, so please share with friends. How do researchers work with primates? Which species do they use? What has research with primates revealed? How … Continue reading Primates in Medical Research – Free Literature

First human stem cells created through cloning…thank Mitalipov’s macaques!

Today is one of those days that will go down in medical and scientific history, the day that scientists at Oregon Health and Science University led by Professor Shoukhrat Mitalipov announced that they had successfully created pluripotent human stem cells by cloning  skin cells. This is the first time that this has been accomplished in human cells, … Continue reading First human stem cells created through cloning…thank Mitalipov’s macaques!

Tom talks nerdy to Cara Santa Maria about monkeys, prosthetic hands and brain machine interfaces.

Speaking of Research founder Tom Holder was  recently interviewed by the Huffington Post’s new science correspondent Cara Santa Maria for her blog “Talk Nerdy To Me” . In her latest post Cara examines whether research performed on monkeys by a Chinese group with the aim of developing improved brain-machine interface technology to control a prosthetic … Continue reading Tom talks nerdy to Cara Santa Maria about monkeys, prosthetic hands and brain machine interfaces.

STOP lying about research at the University of British Columbia

In a post a couple of weeks ago entitled “End of primate research at the University of Toronto?” Allyson Bennet wrote about the truth behind the spin that primate research has ceased at the University of Toronto (UT), commenting that:  If nothing else, those inclined to dodge should consider that they are deriving benefit from … Continue reading STOP lying about research at the University of British Columbia

Remembering a hero of the struggle against HIV/AIDS

December 1st is World AIDS Day, dedicated to raising awareness of the worldwide AIDS pandemic, to support people living with HIV/AIDS and to commemorate those who died. The disease has claimed over 25 million lives.  Worldwide, over 33 million people are now living with HIV/AIDS. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first report … Continue reading Remembering a hero of the struggle against HIV/AIDS