Archived Workshop Reports

The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), one of the 27 Institutes/Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports research to create and develop critical resources, models, and technologies. Within NCRR, the Division of Comparative Medicine (DCM) helps to meet the needs of biomedical researchers for high-quality, disease-free animals and specialized animal research facilities. Through grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts, the DCM supports national primate research centers and their field stations, resource-related projects, development of mammalian and nonmammalian animal model resources, postdoctoral training, and a variety of research projects. Within DCM, the Chimpanzee Management Program (ChiMP) supports long-term, cost-effective care and housing for chimpanzees.

Over 450 people gathered on the NIH campus at the Natcher Auditorium August 3-4 for the 2007 National Veterinary Scholars Symposium. This symposium—sponsored in part by NIH, Merck & Co., Inc. (a pharmaceutical company), and Merial (an animal health company)—brought together veterinary students from schools around the United States and Canada who are engaged in formal research programs. The Symposium was hosted by the University of Pennsylvania and focused on research performed by veterinary students in summer programs, combined degree students, postgraduate veterinarian-scientists, and more senior veterinary scientists.

The purpose of the workshop was to assess the status of germplasm cryopreservation for the target species: mouse, rat, domestic pig, nonhuman primate, and three species of aquarium fishes (Zebrafish, Medaka, and Swordfish).

The purpose of this workshop was to define the need for and properties of physical maps for the rhesus, with an emphasis on a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) map.

Special focuses of the symposium were comparative oncology as well as the contributions of veterinary scientists to public health. Concurrent sessions also focused on immunology, genomics, stem cells, genetic disease, neurobiology, cancer, infectious disease, and lab animal medicine. (August 3 – 4, 2007).

Participants in this workshop explored approaches for enabling researchers to find and use animal and other biological resources more efficiently.

This report summarizes a meeting of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Working Group held in Bethesda, Maryland on March 9, 2006.

The purpose of the workshop was to define the next generation of genetic tools needed to optimize the use of rhesus macaques in translational research.

This meeting highlighted activities of the NCRR-supported comparative medicine resource centers and other resource-related projects.