In the first study of its kind, researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University will develop a transgenic nonhuman primate model for inherited, neurodegenerative diseases. The goal of this four-year, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored study is to develop treatment and prevention options specifically for Huntington’s disease. Anthony Chan, DVM, PhD, an assistant professor at the Yerkes Research Center and the department of human genetics at Emory, and his research team will study the onset and progression of Huntington’s disease, a genetic, neurodegenerative disorder that causes uncontrolled movements, loss of mental processing capabilities and emotional disturbance, and compare the neurological changes that take place in the transgenic model with the neurology of human Huntington’s disease patients in order to develop treatments and preventions. This pioneering study serves as an example of the critical role nonhuman primates play in better understanding genetic and neurological diseases and disorders in humans. Once they develop the transgenic nonhuman primate model of Huntington’s disease, Chan’s research team will use the Yerkes Research Center’s new imaging technology to monitor high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans of the nonhuman primate’s active brain while simultaneously conducting behavioral and cognitive studies. This novel approach will provide the researchers a broader, more comprehensive view of the disease than has ever been established. Researchers have used transgenic mouse models for Huntington’s disease to identify the genetic defect that causes the disorder, however, more clinical data are needed to study disease development.
