Oregon Health & Science University’s board and president have announced that the National Institutes of Health has approached them to discuss turning the nation’s largest primate research center into a sanctuary.

The board made the announcement in a letter posted online, signed by President Shereef Elnahal, Board Chair Susan King and Vice Chair Justin Hurley Braswell.

The letter recognizes the contributions the research center has made to science, but says that advances in technology, changes in ethical standards and shifting federal policy are changing how research is conducted across the country.

“In this context, the NIH has approached OHSU to explore whether federal support could be available to transition the Oregon National Primate Research Center to a primate sanctuary,” they write.

The National Institutes of Health has considerable leverage in any negotiations, as it is both the main funder and main client of the primate research center. The facility was founded in the 1960s to support basic science and medical research. It’s been involved in the discovery of new drugs for cancer, the development of IVF techniques, vaccine development and the effort to cure HIV.

The NIH is under direction from the Trump administration to begin phasing out the use of animals in experiments. The administration has embraced the position, held by animal welfare activists and some scientists, that newer methods based on human stem cells and artificial intelligence can replace many animal studies.

The board will hold a special public meeting Feb. 9 to consider a resolution that would authorize Elnahal to enter into negotiations with the NIH over the following six months.

“This resolution would not predetermine the future of ONPRC,” the board leaders wrote. “Rather, it would allow OHSU to engage in discussions to understand what a transition could entail and to define what the institution would need to protect and advance its mission.”

The center’s work has pitted dedicated scientists, who say primates provide an irreplaceable model for human diseases, against animal welfare activists, who argue that experimenting on primates is ethically wrong.

The center is the largest of seven federally funded primate research facilities in the U.S. It houses roughly 5,000 monkeys and baboons — about 5% of the total population of research primates in the country.

If the board adopts its resolution, OHSU would pause breeding the monkeys “outside of what is required in ongoing research” during the 180-day negotiating period and stop submitting grant applications for new studies using the facility’s monkeys.

The resolution outlines a potential agreement with the NIH for a transition at the facility.

Among the conditions OHSU is seeking from the federal government is an agreement from NIH to continue funding current research projects at the facility, some protection of jobs for the current staff at the primate center, help transitioning faculty who work there and financial support to operate a sanctuary.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/04/ohsu-primate-research-sanctuary-nih/