Tulane's National Primate Research Center, one of only seven in the nation, will champion efforts to consolidate research and data from various studies across the country.
The center in New Orleans primarily focuses on infectious disease research — they were monumental in 2020 to study COVID-19 vaccinations and treatments — but this new effort will focus on the diseases of aging.
When the human body ages, changes occur in the organs and tissues inside the body. Some signals of aging are noticeable changes, like developing age-related farsightedness, gray hairs and wrinkles or hearing loss in the mid-40s.
Other changes increase the likelihood of age-related illnesses, like Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and more.
Jay Rappaport, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology Director and Chief Academic Officer at the Tulane National Primates Research Center.
Dr. Jay Rappaport, director of the 350 employees at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, says the primary focus of the $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health is to optimize data on human longevity and aging.
"There are biologic clocks that are associated with aging," Rappaport said, "And different species age at different rates.”
Nonhuman primates (monkeys) share many physiological, genetic and neurobiological traits with humans, according to Tulane's research center.
Researchers look to find key factors that drive the aging process by studying the differences in aging between humans and primates.
Beyond biological or genetic testing, research centers look at social hierarchies (how monkeys interact with each other and establish social order), dominant stresses on life and available resources. All these factors can affect aging, according to Rappaport.
In humans, access to health care and household economics have a role to play in health and brain aging. However, Rappaport hopes the continued study of nonhuman primates can unlock the keys to human longevity.
"The idea is that if we can identify what the genetic or biochemical components are that regulate the life span, there is hope that we will be able to extend it," Rappaport said.
A lot of information can be gained by studying both people and primates who live beyond the normal life expectancy, according to Rappaport.
In humans, the average life expectancy in the United States is 70 years old. In nonhuman primates — specifically the Rhesus macaque monkeys that are used to study aging at Tulane — the average life expectancy is 30 years old in captivity with good care and nutrition.
A rhesus macaque monkey stares at a visitor from its cage at the Tulane National Primate Research Center near Covington in 2004.
"I know it probably sounds like it's going to take a lot longer than it is," Rappaport said on studying the aging process, "We're not just starting with little babies and just watching them grow. We have animals of all ages across the different centers."
With the new data system, established using the NIH grant, primate centers will share historical and current data on primate research.
California's National Primate Research Center and Baylor's College of Medicine are partnering with Tulane to facilitate center collaboration.
Tulane's primate center is establishing 'portals' for data investigators to access information at all sites across the nation.
"Hopefully this research will lead to advances in human health and extend the lives of human beings," Rappaport said. "That's the ultimate goal."
Tulane said it is making advances in HIV transmission and key discoveries in other infectious diseases — COVID–19, Malaria, RSV, tuberculosis, Zika virus and more.