THE PRIMATE LABORATORY

HISTORY

The Primate Laboratory was established in the Department of Psychiatry of SUNY Downstate upon the arrival of Leonard A. Rosenblum, Ph.D. in 1961. Jeremy D. Coplan, M.D., initially trained in the Laboratory as a Resident in Psychiatry, joined the Downstate faculty in 2000. Drs. Rosenblum and Coplan, both Professors in the Department of Psychiatry currently serve as Co-Directors of Laboratory. The work of the laboratory has been continuously funded by a variety of federal (and nonfederal) agencies since its inception and has led to almost 200 publications in a variety of disciplines from psychobiology and psychopharmacology to neuroscience, depression and anxiety disorders. A primary focus of the laboratory has been the creation of nonhuman primate models of various forms of psychopathology and their developmental antecedents. Recent work, in collaboration with members of the Departments of Medicine and Surgery has also included consideration of psychoimmunological effects of rearing and stress as well as the ontogeny of obesity and lipid physiology.

COLONY

The primate colony is composed of maternally reared, socially housed bonnet macaques (M. radiata) all of which were born and raised in the Primate Laboratory. At present there are approximately 275 bonnets of both sexes distributed across a wide age range, including a number deemed to be "aged".

FACILITIES

The primate colony occupies a total of 3 large rooms, each containing a number of group pens of various sizes and three rooms holding 24 individually housed subjects. Most of the group pens are fronted by one-way observation windows for unobtrusive observation and contain automatic watering systems and a variety of shelves and perch sites. No natural lighting is present in order to avoid seasonal fluctuations and artificial lighting is automatically regulated in each room; temperature and humidity are similarly controlled. All subjects have been conditioned for removal from the pens through special doors leading to hand-carried transport cages.

COMMON PROCEDURES

The staff of the Primate Laboratory regularly engages in systematic computer-recorded behavioral observations of individual members of social groups according to fixed protocols. Blood draws and CSF taps have also been a regular part of the lab’s procedures for a number of years. Apparatus developed in this lab allow systematic recording of cognitive functioning (via computer controlled video tasks) and fluid ingestion, including alcohol & drugs (via a computer system termed IIMOCS – "Individual Intake Monitoring & Control System") in each of the free-moving individual members of social groups.