Construction of Major Primate Laboratory Underway in Iran

In an interview with local Iranian media, Mohammad Mahdavi, the ICSS secretary, said that one of the methods adopted by the council for the development of cognitive sciences and technologies is the development of national infrastructure.

“In the past years, we established a National Brain Mapping Laboratory (NBML) hosted by Tehran University of Medical Sciences in the country. We need to complete the development plan for laboratories and animal study infrastructure, especially the primate lab too,” he went on to say. 

“The establishment of the primate laboratory hosted by Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) and specifically the Royan Institute was put on the agenda. The physical space of this laboratory is in the final stages. The [Royan] Institute has considered a sizeable building for the establishment of the primate laboratory. This laboratory will be built in accordance with international standards,” Mahdavi said.

He pointed to the cognitive data science laboratory among other programs of the ICSS which will be launched next year.

“We have an overall of four laboratories in the field of cognitive sciences, one of which is the brain mapping laboratory, which currently provides laboratory services to researchers and labs. The second laboratory is the primate laboratory, which will be inaugurated soon in collaboration with Royan Institute. The third laboratory will be the national brain laboratory and the last one will be the cognitive data science laboratory,” he highlighted.

As regards the reasons for setting up a primate laboratory, ICSS secretary pointed out that according to neuroscience, the closest creatures on which brain studies can be conducted and are close to humans, are primates from the monkey family including species such as marmosets and rhesus monkeys. The size of their brains and the functions of their brains are similar to human's that allow us to study them and use the findings for humans.”

“In epidemiology, hematology and other studies, other animal species such as mice can be used, but in cognitive studies, the size, shape and structure of the brain is very important, so we have to use primates for these studies,” Mahdavi further noted.

Mahdavi said that there is already a small primate laboratory in Royan Institute but the country needs a much bigger and more equipped lab to meet the country's needs.

He further noted that domestic companies will equip the new primate lab, adding, “Most of the equipment for this laboratory will be made by domestic companies. One of the companies has made cages for breeding animals, and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) and Electroencephalography (EEG) machines have been produced by other domestic companies.”

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