High Profile Diseases
“High Profile Diseases” are written by individual NPRC Core Scientists who are experts in the specific subject of each article. Before publication on the website, each article is reviewed by representatives of all seven NPRCs.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to the wide range of symptoms, skills, and levels of impairment or disability that individuals with ASD can have. Symptoms can include persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts and/or restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Read more...
Reports over the last year have highlighted the growing concern over Chikungunya as an emerging infectious disease that holds the potential to affect a large proportion of the world’s population. Read more...
The Ebola virus kills up to 70% of the people it infects, making it one of the most virulent viruses that infects humans. Scientists around the world are pursuing a preventive vaccine and drug treatments for the Ebola virus, and research with nonhuman primates is providing a powerful means in this pursuit because of the animals’ physiological and immunological similarities to humans. Read more...
Improved therapies to treat HIV patients, as well as an effective vaccine to protect uninfected individuals from future HIV infection, are both urgent public health priorities. Important information has come from studying HIV infection and AIDS in humans over the last 30 years, as well as from studying nonhuman primate (NHP) models for AIDS. Read more...
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine
The National Primate Research Centers have been responsible for groundbreaking advances in pluripotent stem cell research since 1995. Read more...
Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is prevalent worldwide. In the U.S., where it is the most frequently reported vector-borne disease, the annual number of reported cases exceeds 30,000, and the CDC estimates that the true incidence of Lyme disease may be 10-fold larger. Read more...
Primates Paved the Way to Egg Manipulation for Treatment of Mitochondrial Disease: Gene-based cures for human diseases are now on the horizon. Read more...
Type 2 diabetes and its complications such as cardiovascular disease, largely driven by obesity, now represent the major noncommunicable disease burden worldwide. Read more...
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) diminishes the quality of life of over 14 million women in the United States. A woman must have at least two of these traits to be diagnosed with PCOS: polycystic ovaries (a telltale “ring of pearls” grouping of small cysts within the ovaries), high testosterone or excess body hair, and intermittent or absent menstrual cycles. Read more...
Tuberculosis (TB) is an age-old disease of mankind. Despite the availability of chemotherapy for ~50 years and vaccination for more than a century, infections with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) continue to result in ~10 million cases of TB every year, of which ~ 1.3 million people die (1). Read more...
West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that has become endemic in the United States. From 1999–2012, there have been 37,088 reported cases of WNV and 1,549 deaths, resulting in a 4.2% case-fatality rate. Read more...
The NPRCs are at the forefront of research urgently needed to understand Zika virus, to help develop vaccines for it, and especially to prevent pregnant mothers from transmitting it to their unborn children. Read more...