Timeline of Research Successes involving NHPs
Since 1900, the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine has been awarded almost 70 times to researchers whose ground-breaking insights were attained with the help of animal tests.
Our timeline displays the non-human primate research behind the world's major medical advances.
1900-1950s
- Modern anesthesia
- Development of polio vaccine
- Development of yellow fever vaccine
- Cancer chemotherapy
- Penicillin: Discovered in 1928
1960s
- Mapping of the heart’s connections to arteries
- Therapeutic use of cortisone for reducing inflammation and allergy symptoms
- Discovery of the biochemical cause of depression
1970s
- Procedures to restore blood supply to the brain
- Understanding of the inner workings of the basal ganglia, the part of the brain that coordinates movement
1980s
- Processing of visual information by the brain
- First animal model for research on Parkinson’s disease
- First hepatitis B vaccine
- Development of rhesus monkey model for HIV/AIDS
- First treatment of naturally diabetic NHPs
1990s
- Anthrax vaccine development
- Tenofovir: Prevention and treatment of HIV disease
- Naturally regenerative mechanisms in the NHP brain
2000s
- NHPs are prime models for the development of HIV treatments and potential vaccines
- Gene that boosts dopamine production and strengthens brain cells used to successfully treat monkeys showing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
- Covid-19 vaccine development