Primates in the frame

Abstract

Primate researchers have long faced violent protests over their work. But in some countries, regulatory obstacles are taking a greater toll. David Cyranoski meets European scientists who feel that bureaucratic pressures are closing their labs. Kevan Martin’s monkey research project has been running for ten years. This year it hit a snag. Martin studies the brains of macaques to find out why higher-processing areas — the neocortex that accounts for 80% of the human brain — have been such an evolutionary success story. “If we can arrive at a general solution of the structure and function of the neocortex, it has enormous consequences,” he says. The National Centre of Competence in Research, a Swiss government initiative, has reviewed and approved his work, supplying him with generous funding. Martin’s project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich has also been reviewed and approved every two or three years by the local animal experimentation committee. But this year the licence was delayed, forcing him to halt work in June. The eleven-member committee voted 5–4 against the licence, but the local chief veterinary surgeon overruled the decision, and the licence was granted in November. However, six members of the committee have now exercised their right under Swiss law to challenge the licence. The legal challenge has put Martin’s work on hold indefinitely.