The goal of this proposal is to standardize several critical assays in the field of primate immunology and provide valuable resources to investigators interested in conducting immunologic studies in non-human primates. It has become increasingly clear that the results of mouse immunology studies do not readily apply to humans. Increasing interest is being focused on the non-human primate for preclinical studies of immune-based therapies for a number of human diseases and conditions. Using the NIH website and the Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects search engine, we found 51 NIH grants that listed nonhuman primates and immunology as keywords. There is broad interest among biomedical scientists and within the NIH to pursue studies which require the assessment of immunity in nonhuman primates. However, immunologic studies using non-human primates are hampered by a lack of standard reagents and protocols for assessing immune responses. This problem will be directly dealt with in this proposal. We intend to produce standardized reagents and protocols for assessing immunity in nonhuman primates, specifically the rhesus macaque. We intend to distribute the protocols and reagents we develop to interested scientists through publications in scientific journals and a Primate Immunology page that we have created and will post on the World Wide Web. We will also train visiting scientists, technicians and students on the use of these reagents, protocols and procedures. We do not expect that the protocols we develop here will perfectly fit the needs of all investigators pursuing specific studies in the numerous nonhuman primate models. However by producing rigorously tested experimental protocols for cellular immune assays, we will provide investigators that are moving into primate studies a ready source of model protocols which can be adapted to their specific system. The approach described here will place the nonhuman primate resource in a position to facilitate the translation of knowledge from animal studies into clinical approaches for the prevention and treatment of human diseases such as infectious diseases, cancer, autoimmunity and transplant rejection. This type of sustained support for assay development is required if immune studies in non-human primates are going to significantly advance in the near future.
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