-
Aristotle and Erasistratus started performing experiments in living animals.
-
Galen practiced in Rome and was a giant in the history of medicine. He conducted animal experiments to advance the understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology.
-
Albert Sabin made a superior live vaccine than Jonas Salk by passing the polio virus through animal hosts, including monkeys. The vaccine was produced for mass consumption and is still in use today.
-
Ibn Zuh, an Arab physician, introduced animal testing as an experimental method for testing surgical procedures before applying them to human patients.
-
Jonas Salk used rhesus monkeys to study the 3 forms of polio virus and how to make a vaccine for it.
-
David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel demonstrated the macro columnar organization of visual areas in monkeys and provided physiological evidence for the critical period for the development of disparity sensitivity vision.
-
Studies in macaque monkeys in the early 1990s led to the identification of the critical regions of the brain that are essential for cognition and memory and, like humans, ageing monkeys may show evidence of beta-amyloid plaques and lose neurones as they age.
-
In January 2000, the rhesus macaque became the first cloned primate with the birth of Tetra.
-
In January 2001, the birth of ANDi saw the first transgenic primate. ANDi carries foreign genes originally from a jellyfish.
-
Monkeys are still used to find cures for diseases, like cancer.
