The Metrowest Daily News reports the New England Primate Research Center, which is located off Paramenter Road in Southborough (map), will receive $5.1 million in federal stimulus money.
The primate center’s own grants including funding to improve vaccine and disease progression testing for HIV and its primate version; study alcoholism, drug addiction and neuropsychiatric disorders; examine ties between metabolic disturbances and the onset of diabetes and dementia; and determine the role of genes in susceptibility to AIDS.
Read all the details in this article.
For the record, I’m opposed to scientific research conducted on animals.
I try to select health and beauty products that do not test their products on animals (sometimes I’m successful, sometimes I’m not). I must say, I’m very conflicted about this primate research being conducted in our sleepy little town tucked outside Boston.
Does anyone else find it strange that this lab isn’t located in Kendall Square in Cambridge? I guess out of sight, out of mind, off the collective conscience of the citizens of Cambridge? It just doesn’t feel right…
Yes, I know they’ve been here for many, many years and contribute to our tax base but at what cost? Southborough has such a rich agricultural and farming tradition; this is a dichotomy that I personally find difficult to reconcile. We celebrate the Cows on one side of town and then give the cute monkey a deadly disease and see how the latest Rx works on him on the other side of town…
Hey, I’m in healthcare and I understand this type of research is very important. It’s just very unsettling to one who loves animals and one who knows that primates are very human in their feelings, emotions, responses and relationships. We’ve all seen and loved the Nova episodes…
Thanks, I needed to get that off my chest.
i love animals too, I love monkeys, but hey, if testing on animals might find a cure for parkinsons, ms, or md then I’m willing to sacrifice a cute monkey (or a cow) so it might save the life of a human someday. I choose human life over animals. Hey, betcha couldn’t guess I’m not a member of PETA!
Heather, if you are in healthcare and have seen the progress in fighting AIDS, HIV, neuromuscular diseases………well, lots of that research was conducted right here in sleepy little Southborough. That’s the way it is.
Great to see my tax dollars going to Harvard University. Just how corrupt is Obama and his pals? Tell me did he say that it saved or created a 100 jobs in the 45th Mass Congressional District. We get the Government we deserve.
Primate facility? I thought the article was referring to Beacon Hill . . .
“Great to see my tax dollars going to Harvard University. Just how corrupt is Obama and his pals? Tell me did he say that it saved or created a 100 jobs in the 45th Mass Congressional District. We get the Government we deserve.”
Such a cobweb of non sequiturs! You think your tax dollars aren’t already going to Harvard research projects? Lots of our taxes flow through universities, and we get a lot from the expense in basic science that feeds our economy, biotech research that cures disease, and the education of American youth.
But CapeEsq thinks that’s corruption. Seems like that’s his conclusion in search of evidence, and the evidence is lacking.
45th Congressional District? What, is this California? Massachusetts has ten Congressional Districts. This one’s the Third.
If we in Massachusetts got the government we deserved, well, we would never have suffered the depredations of the Bushists.
Considering Harvard’s private endowment of ~$35 Billion, it’s completely mysterious why government is confiscating taxpayer money for Harvard’s pet projects.
The vast majority of University research projects are underwritten by grants and internships from corporations, venture capitalists, and other investors for a share in the resulting product revenue streams or research operations. This is the mutually beneficial partnership we see nationwide, including locally – for MA’s Life Sciences industry, MIT’s Media Lab, etc.
Given the wild exaggerations from the White House and Obama Administration on jobs created by the $1 Trillion “Stimulus” Shakedown – (exaggerations that have been widely reported in our own Boston Globe – hardly a friend of Conservatives) I think it’s only natural and appropriate for MA residents like “Cape Esq” to have questions on the value and return to taxpayers.
Yes, this news raised my eyebrow as well. I do not minimalize the importance of medical research, but I don’t see how this can be considered appropriate stimulus spending. There are still far too many infrastructure projects that could be done and could employ a segment of the population who need it most. I don’t, however, make the leap into governmental corruption. I would like to know more.
BTW, Matthew, I don’t always agree with you, but man can you write! I respect your often well-worded comments.
There are some serious misconceptions in the comments regarding the article detailing stimulus money provided for the primate center. There are 8 national primate centers in the US (and 1 in Puerto Rico). Each of these is affiliated with a university, but they do not receive any funds from the host institution. Rather, money is solely provided through competitive grants (similar to those reportedly awarded by the MW Daily News) that are awarded by funding agencies like the NIH. All the national primate centers have different areas of research that affect human disease prevention and treatment and include, but are not limited to, AIDS pathogenesis, cancer research, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. Without the competitive grants, research would not continue and jobs would be lost.
Great, we live near a bunch of highly stimulated apes.
No, Dean, Algonquin High is over in Northborough. Oh, wait a sec …
Lots of corporations have billions in assets, yet the government continues to make contracts with them. Why? I trust that question answers itself.
(FYI, Harvard’s endowment has taken quite a hit from its peak value. It’s off by a quarter like most of our 401k’s.)
I have my gripes with the economic policy of the Obama administration, too. President Obama put the culprits in charge of financial policy and came to Congress with a stimulus that was too small. But the alternative to doing nothing was a worldwide depression. How’d that work out the last time?