Scientific Working Groups
The ONPRC has established Working Groups in the areas of Biology of Aging, Metabolic Disease, and Stem Cell & Developmental Biology to analyze and plan interdisciplinary research, and to inform areas of future recruitment.
Biology of Aging
As human life expectancy continues to increase, there is a growing need for scientific knowledge about ways to promote healthy aging. The objective of the Biology of Aging Program is to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie normal and pathological human aging, and to help with the development of effective therapies for age-associated diseases.
Key studies conducted by investigators at ONPRC have demonstrated age-related changes in several physiological systems in the rhesus macaque, paralleling those reported in humans. For example, they have found that female macaques undergo menopause, and show associated perturbation of their cicadian rhythms, as well as declines in their immune function and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, ongoing studies are yielding clinically relevant discoveries, that are helping physicians to: 1) evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of various hormones for cognitive and emotional health in postmenopausal women; 2) determine how diet modulates age-related decline in immune function, circadian physiology, learning and memory; and 3) enhance vaccine efficacy and reduce morbidity and mortality following infection by delaying the aging of the immune system.
Such multi-disciplinary approached are made possible because of the world-class scientists and clinicians who make up the aging research consortium at OHSU. In addition, the maintenance of an aging rhesus macaque colony at ONPRC represents a major valuable resource. Nonhuman primate models provide several distinct advantages over rodents and have the potential to disclose important inter-related mechanisms that underlie human aging. This strength fosters the advancement of the basic, translational, and clinical research required to improve lives at later ages, and ensure healthy longevity, free of the disabilities brought about by age-related diseases and conditions.
Metabolic Disease
The focus of the Metabolic Disease Working Group headed by Kevin Grove (Neuroscience/ Reproductive and Developmental Sciences) and Charles Roberts (Neuroscience/ Reproductive and Developmental Sciences) is to develop and use nonhuman primate models of diet-induced obesity to study the broad health issues associated with metabolic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and immune disorders.
Obesity is a worldwide health epidemic, being a major contributor to the increased occurrence of coronary heart disease, hypertension, immune disorders, and type-2 diabetes. Sixty to ninety percent of type-2 diabetes is thought to result from obesity, and obesity is a component of the metabolic syndrome, which also includes cardiovascular risk factors and symptoms of pre-diabetes such as impaired glucose tolerance. A successful understanding of the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to the metabolic disease crisis will require that the full spectrum of basic, translational, and clinical research and epidemiology be brought to bear on the problem. The nonhuman primate is one of the few models that develops the full spectrum of the metabolic syndrome and has several aspects that make it a critical and powerful model for the human disease.
Stem Cell & Developmental Biology
The focus of the Stem Cell & Developmental Biology Working Group headed by Shoukhrat Mitalipov (Reproductive & Developmental Sciences) and Eliot Spindel (Neuroscience) is to foster collaborative studies focused on epigenetic, genetic and cellular mechanisms controlling cell growth, differentiation, and morphogenesis throughout mammalian development.
While the vast majority of studies in gamete formation, fertilization, early embryonic development, stem cells, signaling, and gene regulation are conducted in rodent models, translational research in nonhuman primates is both prudent and warranted due to their remarkable anatomical, physiological and metabolic similarity to humans, and the fact that many human diseases can only be accurately modeled in the nonhuman primate model. Primate models are particularly critical for studies in areas such as embryonic and fetal development and germ and stem cells that are otherwise inaccessible to experimentation in humans.
