Issue date: 26 January 2004

Primate research centre plans abandoned

Cambridge University will not go ahead with a planned neuroscience centre which would have involved primate research.

The university, which wanted to build the facility at 307 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, decided this week it could no longer afford to keep the project alive.

Professor Tony Minson, the university's Pro-Vice-Chancellor, said:

"The University of Cambridge, like many other UK universities, faces an uncertain financial future. What was an acceptable risk five years ago is no longer the case.

"This has not been an easy decision to reach but ultimately, we have a responsibility to our students and staff not to take financial risks of this magnitude, and we believe that although regrettable, this is the right course of action. The funding of animal research has become a subject of debate at a national level.

"The animal rights groups will of course claim this as a victory, but in our view they have won no arguments whatsoever. We still believe this work to be of significant national importance and it's a great shame that a relatively small number of poorly informed people have contributed to halting work that could result in major medical advances."

Dr Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, which was planning to jointly fund the project along with the Higher Education Funding Council for England, said:

"Research using primates will continue to be essential if we are to conquer many diseases. We no longer see the victims of polio in iron lungs because primate research allowed the development of successful vaccines. Primate research is key to understanding and developing treatments of major diseases of the brain including stroke, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

"Without facilities such as those planned for the Cambridge University site this kind of medical pioneering work will be severely hampered.

"Much basic and applied research on physiological, pathological, and therapeutic processes still requires the use of animals. Such research has provided and continues to provide the essential foundation for improvements in medical and veterinary knowledge, education and practice.

"It is unfortunate Cambridge University has been forced to make this decision but animal research will have to continue until we can find alternative approaches."

Ends

Media contact:
Barry Gardner
Wellcome Trust, Press Office
Tel: 020 7611 7329
Mobile: 07711 193041
E-mail: b.gardner@wellcome.ac.uk

Notes to Editors:

The Wellcome Trust is an independent research-funding charity established in 1936 under the will of tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome. The Trust's mission is to promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and spends more than £400 million p.a.