Baboon Brain Scans — TXBioBytes Podcast Episode 015

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Neuropsychiatric diseases affect millions of people and can be disabling. Only about 8% of therapies that work in animal models make it all the way to humans. That’s why Texas Biomed scientists are taking part in a study to try and find a better animal model to work with these complex health problems.

The ultimate goal of this research, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, is to provide evidence for the use of baboons as a preclinical model for neuropsychiatric diseases. This two-year project involves 32 animals from the Southwest National Primate Research Center at Texas Biomed. The idea is to determine a miRNA biomarker signature of structural variation in the brains of baboons.

The animals are being imaged at the Research Imaging institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Melanie Carless, Ph.D., an Associate Scientist at Texas Biomed, is principal investigator on the study.