Category: Director’s Blog

As we face the prospect of living longer and developing age-related diseases including Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and long COVID, it is an especially critical time to be a neuroscientist. At the Simian Collective (SimCo) meeting in Chicago we heard exciting new findings from neuroscientists across the country who are unraveling the mysteries of the brain in health and in disorders including autism, stroke, schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The stars of the meeting were the young investigators who are taking our knowledge to the next level by developing and implementing state of the art technologies and answering questions about the brain that many of us only dreamed about 15-20 years ago.

The meeting was also emotional for all of us all as we celebrated the lives, legacies, and scientific accomplishments of two of our esteemed colleagues – Drs. Sliman Bensmaia and Krishna Shenoy – two brilliant scientists whose work with both human and nonhuman primates alike, made a difference in the everyday lives of people struggling with movement disability from spinal cord injury and stroke. Sliman and Krishna were remarkable people; fun-loving, mischievous, and deeply committed husbands and fathers. We are all better people for knowing them.

Though not expected at a professional, scientific event, SimCo attendees experienced another set of emotions – terror and fear. During a keynote presentation from an internationally renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Betsy Murray, two people from PETA entered the room and one jumped on the stage carrying a sign and screaming horrible untruths about Dr. Murray and her work as he quickly and aggressively walked toward her. The other was taking a video of the scene while shouting “Do not touch me” throughout. It was scary – it was terrorism – and it is unacceptable. At least one of these disruptors was identified as engaging in similar terrorizing behavior against another one of our colleagues Dr. Agnes Lacreuse – notably also a woman.

This very frightening event that occurred at SimCo is not an isolated incident. It is part of a campaign of harassment and intimidation against scientists who are working hard every day to end suffering for all living beings. The animal enterprise terrorism act (AETA) passed into law in 2006, expressly forbids the kind of harassment and intimidation in which PETA engages. AETA needs enforcement and PETA actors need to be prosecuted.

In a sobering talk presented at the joint conference of the International and Malaysian Primatological Societies in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia by Dr. Anna Holzner (from the University of Leipzig), the audience learned that the southern pig-tailed macaque monkey, the primate species that we breed at WaNPRC, is facing immediate and long-term threats in pigtail habitat countries such as peninsular Malaysia. According to Dr. Holzner, many of the forests are being converted to oil palm plantations. To adapt to these environmental changes, pigtails travel into the plantations and forage, putting them at increased risk of predation and exposure to pesticides. These immediate risks are compounded by the long-term impacts on lifespan resulting from changes in social structure and behavior that occur because of foraging in the plantations. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34993012/)

The Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) is deeply committed to capacity building and conservation of primates across the globe through the work of our Global Conservation Education and Outreach unit (GCEO) established in 1999. The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently upgraded the classification of the southern pig-tailed macaque to endangered based on the projected decline in population. Noting IUCN criteria specifically indicates, “Population reduction projected, inferred or suspected to be met in the future (up to a maximum of 100 years).”

WaNPRC’s GCEO, along with our partners at the Primate Research Center at IPB University (IPB) in Bogor, Indonesia are leading the effort to collect data on the distribution and population of southern pig-tailed macaque monkeys.  We at WaNPRC remain committed to this effort and will continue to work hard on behalf of these animals. We are hopeful that our collaborative efforts aimed at understanding the pig-tailed macaque in habitat countries combined with our deep knowledge of these animals from our years of experience breeding and caring for them, will help ensure these precious animals stay vital in their native habitats.

A Gallup poll in 2022 revealed that only 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of trust in newspaper, television or other media outlets. According to the Edelman Annual Trust Barometer in 2022, 67% of people globally believe that journalists and reporters are trying to mislead them (Trust in media declines – PressGazette). I used to be among those 7%, but now find myself increasingly among the 67%.

Why?  Because I witness first-hand how journalists can take information and make it fit their narrative, or worse, the narrative of people and groups with an agenda to end all biomedical and behavioral research involving animals. Journalism should be about truth and balance, not propaganda and misinformation. Propaganda and misinformation threaten the future of scientific discovery and medical advances.

Since I became the director of the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) in October 2021, I witnessed the systematic ‘gathering’ of information related to WaNPRC through the public records process. These records, that run into the hundreds of thousands, take time and taxpayer dollars to gather, redact and make available to the requester. The information in the documents is taken out of context and repackaged in inflammatory and damaging ways and then sent to journalists with the intent to entice a reporter to take up the mantle of the activist community.  Most journalists ignore the bait as they can see through the thinly veiled attempt to discredit our work or our employees.  A few erroneously see Pulitzer potential, and an even smaller number take the time to look at both sides of the primate research coin—because there is more than one side.  To me, the latter is journalism – objectivity, truth and balance.

I encourage journalists to take the approach of looking at all sides of the animal research debate, objectively and using the facts, not misinformation. Follow the lead of the journalist from Mother Jones, Ms. Jackie Flynn Mogensen who wrote perhaps the most balanced piece of journalism on the topic of animal research I have seen in a very long time. I encourage everyone to read it. (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/06/animals-testing-monkey-primate-shortage-covid-monkeypox-future-pandemic-vaccines/)

It is unfortunate that some members of Congress* are unaware of the excellent article written by Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, head of the division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Medical Research Council at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, that thoroughly debunks the notion that animal research plays little role in medical discovery. I encourage everyone to read it.

When I hear statements suggesting that animal research plays no role in medical discovery, I am reminded that the great majority of people are unaware of the vital role that basic – or my preferred word – foundational scientific research with animals plays in the discovery and development of practically all medical advances of the last and current centuries, not the least of which are the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines that are now helping us to return to our pre-pandemic lives.

Another recent example of foundational science leading to medical discovery in the news lately is how modern brain computer interfaces help people with locked in syndrome communicate with their loved ones. This is an amazing medical accomplishment and one that would not be possible without foundational research performed over the last 25+ years, mostly in monkeys, and some of which was performed at WaNPRC by our core scientist, Dr. Eberhard Fetz. The contribution of WaNPRC’s research, veterinary and behavioral care staff is expanding with our new generation of scientists. For example, Dr. Azadeh Yazdan-Shahmorad and her team recently developed a new set of tools to explore how the brain changes with stroke, opening the door to facilitate the development of new therapies for neurorehabilitation. The tools she and her team developed include state-of-the art imaging combined with physiology and a refined method for producing a monkey model of cerebral cortical stroke. The toolbox includes a novel method for studying cerebral stroke with very small infarcts, opening up unprecedented opportunities to study the physiology of stroke associated with minimal to no functional deficits. Although we don’t yet know what medical breakthroughs these new tools will yield, there is a high likelihood that they will yield tremendous new knowledge about how our brains work both in health and disease. Contrary to the idea that basic animal research fails to lead to human therapies, basic animal research is the very foundation upon which therapies reside.

*Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-CA) and Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC), recently deployed a method straight from the anti-animal research playbook in their letter to the interim director of NIH, by neglecting to point out that the testing of novel compounds on animals, before bringing those compounds to humans, is very effective at preventing humans (and our companion animals) from being exposed to dangerous drugs. Their letter also fails to capture the fact that if it weren’t for basic animal research, we wouldn’t have very many compounds or therapies to test.

I applaud Elon Musk and Neuralink for their recent blog post about their work involving research animals, particularly monkeys. Biomedical and behavioral research institutions in this country would be wise to take a lesson. Musk, and his company Neuralink, recently came under fire from one of a number of anti-animal research extremist organizations when they accused Neuralink of animal welfare abuses. Neuralink recently joined the 25+ year effort of neuroscientists and engineers, to develop brain-computer interfaces, a technology that promises to help people suffering with impaired mobility due to paralysis, stroke, Lou Gehrig’s disease (or ALS) and other neurological ailments that affect movement.

As all biomedical technology currently in use, the development of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) for use in humans depends critically on animal models. For BCI, a genus of Old World monkey, the macaque, is particularly crucial in light of this animals’ extraordinary visual and motor capabilities, sharing many features of our own. Macaque monkeys also share many features of our immune system, which is why this genus of animals plays such an important role in the development of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.

Science by its very nature, depends on failure as well as success. Experiments do not always work, new procedures take time to develop and refine and it is physically and emotionally demanding. Anti-animal research extremists will have everyone believe that people who perform research with animals are heartless and uncaring or even incompetent. Nothing could be further from the truth and the statement released by Neuralink exposes the truth about animal research. Researchers and veterinarians who work in laboratory settings care deeply about the animals they work with and provide exceptional care for them.

Neuralink took a chance in making this public statement – they put themselves at risk of harassment and intimidation by members of groups opposed to biomedical research that depends upon animals. What I believe Neuralink also did, was clear a path for all of us to stand up and speak out on behalf of all the hard-working people who care deeply about animals and work hard in pursuit of new knowledge and medical advancements that will help humans and animals alike. It’s high time other research institutions follow the lead of Neuralink and speak the truth about our important work.

Michele A. Basso, PhD