This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.During the past grant year, there have been a number of notable scientific and technological achievements in the IPRL. Embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines were developed from two species of macaque monkeys. To date, more than 15 individual cell lines have been created and more than 750 samples of these lines at various stages of culture have been cryopreserved. ESC lines from split embryos have also been developed. One of the major efforts in the IPRL during the last year has been to continue developing cognitive tests using a computerized touch-screen testing system. The system developed at the IPRL can be successfully used with infants as young as 90-days of age. To meet our goal of providing investigators with innovative test methods, we have successfully worked with a team of investigators from Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the Dept of Otolaryngology (Drs. Jim Phillips and Avery Weiss) to develop test procedures to study the development of oculomotor function in infant primates. The IPRL can now offer the longitudinal collection of optokinetic and smooth pursuit eye movement data in infant monkeys to investigators. New test equipment to track eye movements has been donated to the IPRL and is currently being assembled. Identical stimuli and monitoring tools are used at Children's Regional Hospital and Medical Center to collect data on human infants. Upgrades of our data collection and management programs have continued and all neurobehavioral data are now collected via DELL laptops and or/hand-held devices such as Palm Pilots. We continue to have a thriving breeding colony to produce healthy, gestation-known infants for projects conducted in the lab. Lastly, Drs. Burbacher, Sackett and Grant published a book titled 'Primate Models of Children's Health and Developmental Disabilities' (Elsevier, 2008) to highlight the strengths of the primate model in contemporary pediatric research.
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