New World Monkey Immunoreagent Resource

Marmosets (MAR, Callithrix jacchus), owl monkeys (OLM, Aotus sp.), and squirrel monkeys (SQM, Saimiri sp.) are New World Monkeys (NWM) studied extensively in a broad array of research areas, including infection, vision, audition, social behavior, cognition, neurodegenerative diseases, reproduction, and genetic manipulation. One critical shortcoming of the NWM animal models is the limited number of immunological reagents that are currently available due to more than 40 million of years of evolutionary divergence. This scarcity of research tools reduces the translational value of these nonhuman primates.

The New World Monkey Immunoreagent Resource is funded by an R24 grant from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP, NIH; R24OD030215).
The goal of this scientific resource is to improve the translational value of NWM biomedical models by developing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that can be used in immunological assays for the identification and quantification of biomarkers of inflammation and metabolism in marmosets (MAR, Callithrix jacchus), owl monkeys (OLM, Aotus sp.), and squirrel monkeys (SQM, Saimiri sp.).

This endeavor is a partnership among Mabtech AB (Sweden), the Texas Biomedical Research Institute’s Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC, TX, USA), the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research (MKCCMR, TX, USA), and the D. R. Semmes School of Science at Trinity University (TX, USA).