Oregon Voices for Biomedical Research

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Oregon Voices for Biomedical Research Protecting biomedical research that is saving lives | Advocating for ethical animal research

"It's the 'and' thing. It's NAMS and nonhuman primates." That's Dr. R. Paul Johnson, director of Emory's National Biomed...
09/23/2026

"It's the 'and' thing. It's NAMS and nonhuman primates." That's Dr. R. Paul Johnson, director of Emory's National Biomedical Research Center, on a new episode of PRIM&R's Research Ethics Reimagined. He and Dr. Joyce Cohen, the center's veterinarian, spent nearly 50 minutes making a case we've been making too: New Approach Methods and nonhuman primate research aren't rivals, they're partners.
A few things worth pulling out. About 70% of Emory's researchers now use NAMs alongside nonhuman primate models, not instead of them. Their belatacept story is a great case study in why: a promising transplant drug that worked in mice, failed in monkeys, got refined, then succeeded, and is now standard care for kidney transplant patients at Emory. Skip the monkey studies, and that failure happens in a human trial instead.
Dr. Cohen also put it plainly: "I wish they understood how much the people here working with the animals care about what we do and how much compassion there is." Their IACUC (the required oversight committee) has over 50 members, and the center holds public open houses twice a year so people can see that for themselves.

Worth the full listen: share.transistor.fm/s/8fdae056

A new Ipsos poll asked 2,011 U.S. adults questions about biomedical animal research. The results might surprise you. 62%...
09/23/2026

A new Ipsos poll asked 2,011 U.S. adults questions about biomedical animal research. The results might surprise you. 62% support this research when veterinarians oversee it to make sure animals are treated well. 58% say it's important to human health. And when asked whether humans, including pregnant women and children, should be tested on instead of animals, 63% said no.

This isn't a poll of people who already agree with us. It's a poll that specifically sought out the undecided middle, and even there, the numbers lean toward supporting responsible, well-overseen research.

See the full results and add your voice: savescienceoregon.org/poll

Here is something most Oregonians do not know about their own state.Around the end of the 1960s, a University of Oregon ...
09/23/2026

Here is something most Oregonians do not know about their own state.
Around the end of the 1960s, a University of Oregon geneticist and his research partner bought a few zebrafish from a local aquarium shop. That small decision turned into one of the most widely used research models in biology. Around 85 percent of the genes linked to human disease have counterparts in zebrafish that behave similarly, making them enormously useful for studying how disease works.
Fast forward, and Eugene is now where labs everywhere get their fish and their data. Down the road in Corvallis, Oregon State runs one of the largest zebrafish toxicology facilities, testing chemicals for their effects on the developing nervous system.
We wrote about all of it, follow this link to learn more:
https://savescienceoregon.org/blog/oregon-s-other-research-animal

09/21/2026

Remember the eerie orange skies over Oregon during the 2020 Labor Day fires? Most of us closed the windows, ran an air filter, and waited for the air to clear. Some people did not have that option, and little is known about health outcomes. Monkeys living in outdoor enclosures at the Oregon National Primate Research Center are helping us understand what the long-term health outcomes of wildfire exposure are.
Because these animals receive daily health checks and have decades of records, researchers can see exactly what the smoke did. Pregnancy loss in the colony more than quadrupled. Young infants were far more likely to develop lung problems like pneumonia. Macaques are remarkably similar to humans, so these findings are an early warning for pregnant people, babies, and anyone with a respiratory condition. Our new blog breaks down the science. Read it here: https://savescienceoregon.org/blog/when-the-smoke-rolls-in

If someone in your family has been through dementia, you know how much of it stays unexplained. Here is one small piece ...
09/17/2026

If someone in your family has been through dementia, you know how much of it stays unexplained. Here is one small piece scientists are working on. Brain scans of older adults often show tiny fluid-filled spaces wrapped around blood vessels. These have been around for years without a clear explanation of how they form or what they mean.
Researchers at the Oregon National Primate Research Center found that older rhesus macaques develop the same spaces on their own as they age. Because these animals also show memory changes with age, scientists can now study how the brain's waste-clearing system changes over time and test whether anything can protect it.

Read the full story: savescienceoregon.org/blog/before-the-forgetting-begins

Have you seen headlines suggesting computer models and lab-grown mini-organs will soon end the need for animals in scien...
09/16/2026

Have you seen headlines suggesting computer models and lab-grown mini-organs will soon end the need for animals in science? The real story is more interesting.
These tools, called New Approach Methods (NAMs), are really changing research. They let scientists run experiments with human cells, test more ideas in less time, and reduce the number of animals needed along the way.
But a dish of cells cannot show how a medicine affects the heart, liver, immune system, and brain simultaneously. For questions like that, whole-body studies remain essential. And here is a twist most people miss: many NAMs are made from animal-derived materials, so they still rely on animal research.
Our new blog walks through what NAMs can and cannot do, in plain language. Give it a read: savescienceoregon.org/blog/nams-the-next-frontier-of-research

08/31/2026

Two decades ago, a pediatric neurologist found himself facing an uncomfortable possibility: that the very drugs keeping babies safely asleep through surgery might be silently injuring the brains those drugs were meant to protect.
Early warning signals were coming from mouse and rat experiments, but no clinical field changes its practice on rodent data alone, and anesthesia cannot be withheld from a child who requires a serious surgical procedure or emergency trauma care. Something more was needed: evidence from a species whose brain biology meaningfully resembles our own.
That came from a tightly overseen study using a small cohort of monkeys, conducted jointly by clinicians at OHSU and Washington University in St. Louis alongside scientists at ONPRC. The results were sobering. Common anesthetics were destroying key populations of cells during a critical window of neurodevelopment.
This has a global effect on clinical care. Drug selections, dosing strategies, and monitoring protocols for the youngest patients were rewritten across specialties. Children undergoing anesthesia today are demonstrably better protected because of what those studies revealed.
And despite remarkable progress in organoids, computational modeling, and machine learning, none of those tools can stand in for an intact, developing primate nervous system, with its blood flow, hormonal signaling, long-range circuitry, and metabolic feedback all working together. For the narrow set of questions where that level of biological realism is non-negotiable, primate research still has no substitute.
Dr. Stephen Back of OHSU Doernbecher shares the full account: https://savescienceoregon.org/blog/pediatric-anesthesia

Want to keep up with what’s happening in biomedical research in Oregon?Sign up for the OVBR newsletter for research stor...
08/29/2026

Want to keep up with what’s happening in biomedical research in Oregon?

Sign up for the OVBR newsletter for research stories, policy updates, upcoming events, and ways to get involved.

We won’t overwhelm your inbox—just the updates worth knowing.

📩 Join the OVBR newsletter: SaveScienceOregon.org

OHSU’s new resolution directs the university to develop its plan in collaboration with the scientists, veterinarians, an...
08/28/2026

OHSU’s new resolution directs the university to develop its plan in collaboration with the scientists, veterinarians, and welfare experts at ONPRC. Coverage has focused on what shrinks at the ONPRC. Less noticed is what the resolution actually commits to.
Most public conversation about animal research collapses into one word: replacement. But the ethical framework guiding this work worldwide has three parts. Replacement means finding ways to skip animal use entirely. Reduction means designing a study so that fewer animals still produce a reliable answer. Refinement means improving day-to-day welfare for each animal involved.
Read closely, the resolution supports all three. That matters because a plan built on only one of them would be weaker.
It is also worth being clear about what has not been decided. The resolution sets a direction, not a schedule. How many animals, how quickly, and at what cost are questions the plan is supposed to answer, and federal partners have to agree before much of it can move.
Our latest blog looks at what the resolution says, and at the published Oregon research showing these principles were already in practice long before the vote.
https://savescienceoregon.org/blog/when-science-sets-the-pace-ohsu-s-new-onprc-resolution-and-the-3rs

08/01/2026

This week, The Economist featured Dr. Brandon Wilder, one of our members and a scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, in a podcast exploring the future of biomedical research.
Brandon's story is a reminder that behind every experiment are people who have dedicated their careers to improving human health. They ask difficult questions, pursue better treatments, and work every day with the hope of making the world healthier.
We are grateful to The Economist for highlighting the scientists, veterinarians, and research teams whose work is advancing medicine while striving to uphold the highest standards of animal welfare.
Thank you, Brandon, for representing Oregon's scientific community with thoughtfulness, humility, and hope. https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2026/08/01/the-war-on-animal-research?giftId=MWQzODg0ODEtZmM3OC00YmQzLTg1MDktZGRlY2JjNjY5ZDFidGVnX3VzZXI%3D&utm_campaign=gifted_article&source=internal

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