Chimpanzee News and Research

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Aging chimps show Alzheimer’s like brain changes – new research shows

In a study published yesterday in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, researchers have reported that aged chimpanzees may show similar if not identical brain changes as persons with early Alzheimer's disease. Chimpanzees are the closes linked animals with humans and these findings may help understand the mechanism of development of Alzheimer’s disease believe researchers.

2 Aug 2017

Bonobos may be more closely linked to anatomy of human ancestors, study finds

A new study examining the muscular system of bonobos provides firsthand evidence that the rare great ape species may be more closely linked, anatomically, to human ancestors than common chimpanzees

28 Apr 2017

Study provides new insights into shared history between lice and bacterial sidekicks

A Florida Museum of Natural History study provides new insights into the complex, shared history between blood-sucking lice and the vitamin-producing bacterial sidekicks that enable them to parasitize mammals, including primates and humans.

17 Apr 2017

New study reports strains of chimpanzee-carried SIVs can infect human cells

No one knows exactly how it happened. It may have entered through a cut or bite wound, the blood of a chimpanzee seeping into an exposed fingertip or forearm or foot.

22 Jul 2016

Whole genome sequencing of chimpanzee parasite reveals clues about human malaria

Understanding the origins of emerging diseases - as well as more established disease agents -- is critical to gauge future human infection risks and find new treatment and prevention approaches. This holds true for malaria, which kills more than 500,000 people a year. Symptoms, including severe anemia, pregnancy-associated malaria, and cerebral malaria, have been linked to the parasite's ability to cause infected red blood cells to bind to the inner lining of blood vessels.

22 Mar 2016

Two investigational Ebola vaccines well-tolerated in Phase 2 clinical trial

Two investigational vaccines designed to protect against Ebola virus disease were well-tolerated and induced an immune response among 1,000 vaccinated participants in the Phase 2 randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial called PREVAIL I.

25 Feb 2016

Research into 2-million-year-old human fossils reveals how hearing pattern resembles chimpanzees

Research into human fossils dating back to approximately two million years ago reveals that the hearing pattern resembles chimpanzees, but with some slight differences in the direction of humans.

26 Sep 2015

Discovery opens door to new way of thinking about ancient ancestors

An international team of scientists, including one from the University of Colorado Denver and another from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, announced the discovery Thursday of a new species of hominin, a small creature with a tiny brain that opens the door to a new way of thinking about our ancient ancestors.

10 Sep 2015

Ebola vaccine study begins in Dakar, Senegal

A trial to evaluate an Ebola vaccine has begun in Dakar, Senegal, after initial immunisations started at the Jenner Institute, Oxford University. The announcement comes as a conference in Oxford discusses the global response to Ebola and the implications for future drug and vaccine development.

15 Jul 2015

New study suggests that humans and chimpanzees share basic brain skills needed for cooking

A new study, co-authored by Felix Warneken, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, and Alexandra Rosati '05, currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Psychology Department at Yale University who will join the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology as an assistant professor at Harvard this summer, suggests that humans' cognitive capacity for cooking are also share by chimpanzees.

3 Jun 2015

Study shows link between upright locomotion and spinal health

A Simon Fraser University researcher has uncovered what may be the first quantified evidence demonstrating a relationship between upright locomotion and spinal health.

28 Apr 2015

Ebola survivors face long-term adverse health effects: Study

Ebola survivors experienced negative health effects that persisted more than two years after the 2007-2008 Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV) outbreak in Uganda that claimed 39 lives. These findings are detailed in a paper published online today in Lancet ID.

23 Apr 2015

Scientists find gorilla origins in two human AIDS virus lineages

Two of the four known groups of human AIDS viruses (HIV-1 groups O and P) have originated in western lowland gorillas, according to an international team of scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Montpellier, the University of Edinburgh, and others.

3 Mar 2015

Large clinical trial to assess safety, efficacy of two experimental Ebola vaccines opens in Liberia

A large clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of two experimental vaccines to prevent Ebola virus infection is now open to volunteers in Liberia. The trial is being led by a recently formed Liberia-U.S. clinical research partnership and is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

3 Feb 2015

Cornell scientists develop new computational method to identify functional human genome

Striving to unravel and comprehend DNA's biological significance, Cornell University scientists have created a new computational method that can identify positions in the human genome that play a role in the proper functioning of cells, according to a report published Jan. 19 in the journal Nature Genetics.

22 Jan 2015

Experimental Ebola vaccine safe and immunogenic in African population

Two experimental DNA vaccines to prevent Ebola virus and the closely related Marburg virus [1] are safe, and generated a similar immune response in healthy Ugandan adults as reported in healthy US adults earlier this year.

23 Dec 2014

Study paves way for further research on brain evolution

The neocortex is the part of the brain that enables us to speak, dream, or think. The underlying mechanism that led to the expansion of this brain region during evolution, however, is not yet understood. A research team headed by Wieland Huttner, director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, now reports an important finding that paves the way for further research on brain evolution: The researchers analyzed the gyrencephaly index, indicating the degree of cortical folding, of 100 mammalian brains and identified a threshold value that separates mammalian species into two distinct groups: Those above the threshold have highly folded brains, whereas those below it have only slightly folded or unfolded brains.

2 Dec 2014

Experimental Ebola vaccine appears safe, produces immune system responses in NIH phase 1 trial

An experimental vaccine to prevent Ebola virus disease was well-tolerated and produced immune system responses in all 20 healthy adults who received it in a Phase 1 clinical trial conducted by researchers from the National Institutes of Health. The candidate vaccine, which was co-developed by the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline, was tested at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

27 Nov 2014

Study reveals the origin of world's AIDS pandemic

A study published in Science magazine reveals for the first time where, when and how the world's AIDS pandemic originated. Thanks to a statistical analysis of all the genetic data available on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), an international research team has just confirmed that the scourge broke out in 1920 in Kinshasa, the capital of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

13 Nov 2014

Experimental vaccine protects monkeys exposed to Ebola virus

One shot of an experimental vaccine made from two Ebola virus gene segments incorporated into a chimpanzee cold virus vector (called chimp adenovirus type 3 or ChAd3) protected all four macaque monkeys exposed to high levels of Ebola virus 5 weeks after inoculation, report National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their collaborators.

9 Sep 2014