At the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), a group of monkeys climb and swing across their large outdoor enclosure. At first glance, the small, fur-covered primates appear to bear little resemblance to their human handlers. Their DNA, however, tells a different story. The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) shares about 93 percent of its genome with humans.¹ For this reason, researchers study the rhesus macaque to understand primate evolution, comparative physiology, and the genetic basis of human diseases as well as addressing numerous scientific questions.

The National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs)¹ Consortium is a collaboration among  the California (CNPRC), Oregon (ONPRC), Southwest (SNPRC), Tulane (TNPRC), Washington (WaNPRC), Wisconsin (WNPRC), and Emory (ENPRC) National Primate Research Centers. Funded by the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Consortium’s mission is to improve global health through biomedical research with NHPs.

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