Crossposted from Nature’s news blog on behalf of Meredith Wadman. An Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that will recommend whether the US government should continue to support chimpanzee research opened its inaugural meeting yesterday in Washington, D.C. and began wrestling with the thorny questions it has been set. The Committee on the Use of Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research is charged with determining “if chimpanzees are or will be necessary for research discoveries” to improve public health - and for determining the safety and effectiveness of new drugs and vaccines. Its task also includes looking at whether the animals, … Read more Continue reading →