Texas Biomedical Research Institute is:

• Site of the country's only privately owned full-size maximum containment laboratory.

  In Texas Biomed's sophisticated Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory, our virologists safely study deadly pathogens for which there are no treatments or vaccines. Access to the safest type of laboratory in the world has enabled our scientists to excel in the development and testing of novel strategies to detect these dangerous pathogens and to prevent and treat the disease they cause.

• Conducting innovative and humane research with nonhuman primates.

  The Institute enjoys a distinguished history in the humane and appropriate use of nonhuman primates for biomedical research. Our facilities are accredited by an international accrediting organization, and they are routinely inspected by three federal agencies responsible for assuring the proper care and use of laboratory animals. Our expertise with using nonhuman primates in research is exemplary.

• Site of the National Institutes of Health's Southwest National Primate Research Center.

  In 1999, Texas Biomed became the site of the country's eighth National Primate Research Center, and the first to be established since the inception of the program and its original seven centers in the 1960s. This designation has allowed Texas Biomed to expand its role as a resource for other scientific institutions around the country.

• Home to the world's largest baboon colony, with 2,000 baboons.

  Of these, 1,200 are part of a unique pedigreed baboon colony, on which scientists have maintained family, genetic and medical histories for seven generations. Going back more than 40 years, this pedigreed colony is a powerful tool for genetic research. The Institute maintains more than 1,000 other primates, including a variety of other monkey species as well as a colony of about 170 chimpanzees.

• Where the baboon and rhesus gene maps were developed.

  Our geneticists have made it possible for researchers to find the locations of genes – and eventually to identify specific genes – that control susceptibility to heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis and other common chronic diseases.

• Home to the world's largest marsupial colony.

  with 2,200 fully pedigreed laboratory opossums. These animals provide unique opportunities for research on early development, and they serve as unique animal models for hypercholesterolemia and malignant melanoma.

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