UPR/MSC CURRENT PROJECTS

AND ACTIVITIES

Selected Campus Projects Relevant to Women's Health

Caribbean Primate Research Center

The Caribbean Primate Research Center (CPRC) is located in three facilities two of which house over 2,000 rhesus monkeys available for biomedical and behavioral research. The animal facilities are fully accredited by the American Association for the Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC). Cayo Santiago, a small island off the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico near Punta Santiago, was the first free-ranging colony of rhesus macaques established in the Americas. Studies done since 1938 on this population have provided the basis for knowledge of the social and sexual behavior of monkeys. The population presently consists of about 700 monkeys divided into five naturally-formed social groups. The CPRC is supported by the University of Puerto Rico and a core grant from the National Institutes of Health. Numerous non-invasive studies of diseases occurring in humans are conducted in the primate population.