Over 60 years of life-saving research and humane animal care
WNPRC scientist Ricki Colman and UW–Madison colleagues showed that aged rhesus monkeys — which develop amyloid plaques naturally as they age — are a promising new model for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, more closely reflecting the human condition than the young, genetically-engineered mice typically studied.
A UW–Madison gene-editing project — a nanocapsule that delivers CRISPR safely into the brain — earned $2.3 million in new NIH funding. WNPRC scientists Marina Emborg and Jon Levine are collaborators, and the next phase will test the system’s gene editing and safety in nonhuman-primate brains at WNPRC.
An international study identified the gene NPSR1 as a promising non-hormonal drug target for endometriosis — and the genetic link was validated in WNPRC’s colony of rhesus macaques, which develop endometriosis spontaneously, much like humans.
WNPRC scientist Marina Emborg and her team developed a nonhuman-primate model that lets researchers visualize, in real time, the heart-nerve damage Parkinson’s disease causes — using PET imaging to track inflammation and nerve loss in the hearts of rhesus macaques. The advance could help detect and treat a serious but under-recognized effect of Parkinson’s on …