Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS), Medical Primate Research Center is an internal center of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences jointly established by Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (IBMS) and Institute of Medical Biology (IMB). Supported by an innovative project of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Medical Primate Research Center integrates advantages of talents, technology and animal resources of two non-human primate breeding bases(Institute of Medical Biology and the Institute of Laboratory Animal Sciences). Combined with major strategic needs of our country, major national scientific programs and overall development plan of CAMS, we provide a reliable primate disease model for basic research and clinical intervention.

In recent years, with the rapid development of biomedical industry, especially since the outbreak of COVID-19, demand for non-human primate laboratory animals represented by rhesus monkeys has increased explosively and continuously, resulting in a shortage of non-human primate resources. During the pandemic situation, a large number of non-human primates were used for scientific research, vaccine and drug evaluation, which led to the decline of primate population in Medical Primate Research Center. In order to reverse this situation, the center focused on expanding the population of non-human primates in 2022. Our main breeding bases include, striving to upgrade and transform breeding facilities, strengthening the technical level of our team, and establishing scientific breeding methods, all of which result in a significant increase in the number and variety of animal breeding. At present, the population of non-human primates is more than 3000, ensuring the supply of experimental monkeys for scientific research, production and verification. In addition, in order to realize social sharing of biological sample resources and data resources, reducing repeated experiments and waste of non-human primate resources, and protecting primate resources, the breeding base in Beijing initially established a systematic and complete information database of non-human

primate biological samples, disease samples, and corresponding shared databases.

In 2022, Medical Primate Research Center carried out a wide range of external technical services, using non-human primate disease models for drug evaluation and translational medicine research. The center used reliable primate model resources to perform translational medicine research of infectious, metabolic and other diseases in cooperation with Peking University, Beijing Institute of Genomics Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units. We have achieved a series of research results, including publishment of 10 academic papers in Nat Med, Nat Commun, Cell, Protein&Cell other academic journals. Apart from the key achievements despite of the pandemic situation in 2021, the center also completed the establishment of animal models of novel coronavirus mutants rhesus monkeys, hamsters and BALB/c mice, and continuing to carry out the research on the pathogenesis of COVID-19 mutants and the effectiveness evaluation of related vaccines, drugs and antibodies. In 2022, all units of our center explored and established gene editing technology in rodents, laying a foundation for preparation of gene editing monkeys.