New Center Will Study Primates; To Open in May

The New England Regional Primate Research Center, sponsored by Harvard and built with federal funds, will begin operation this May when its construction is completed. It will be located in Southboro, Mass.

Working with an annual budget of $1 million, the Center's permanent staff of seven will study rhesus monkeys, sebus monkeys, and shrews. All members of this staff will be from the Medical School and the College.

In addition to the permanent group, there will be several temporary staff members, not necessarily from Harvard, who will use the Center for work in fields requiring experimentation with primates. Dr. Bernard F. Trum, director of the Center, said yesterday that these men (15 this year) would be working in sociology, pathology, and physiology.

Several Regional Research Centers have already eben built in other parts of the country. Most of these, however, have special areas of study to which they devote most of their time. Trum said that he would try to keep the Center uncommitted to any specialization, making it available for research in a wide variety of fields.

The Center will be administered by Harvard. The Dean of the Medical School will have authority over its operation but the program and policies of the Center must be approved by a special advisory council. The council's members will represent several universities and the Atomic Energy Commission.

Trum said that the Center would originally have 400 primates for research purposes, but he predicted twice this number within five years. Animals are already being purchased from dealers in New York and California at prices ranging from $60 for an average South American monkey to $120 for a maccoca speciosa.

Trum applied to the National Institute of Health in 1962 for funds to build the Center, and construction began last February