November 26, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 20, 1423

LONDON: Controversial plans to build a $38 million research centre where scientists will experiment on the brains of primates are set to ignite a ferocious battle between researchers and animal rights activists.

Both sides will clash at a public inquiry — which opens on Tuesday — that will decide the fate of Cambridge University’s international neuroscience centre. Two previous applications for approval for the institute have been rejected.

Animal activists have warned that if the centre is given the go-ahead it will become a major focus of protest. Police fear this could lead to outbreaks of violence similar to those at the laboratories of the nearby Huntingdon Life Sciences, whose managing director was once beaten with an iron bar.

Animal rights groups also claim that diseases, including those caused by the Ebola and Marburg viruses, could spread from the centre and infect local inhabitants. They also claim there is no scientific rationale for experimenting on primates. Tests on human tissues, or trials using computer models, can provide just as much data, they argue.

But senior scientists say it is vital that the centre — which will search for cures for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as strokes and schizophrenia — be given approval. Rejection would set research back by years.

Refusal would also lead to an exodus of some of Britain’s leading doctors and biologists, they add. “The outcome, whatever it is, will send a message to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, about Britain’s willingness to carry out key biological research,” said Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College, London. “If the centre is turned down, some of our finest scientists will simply go abroad to work, while countries like Japan will refuse to invest in Britain.”

“Quarantine procedures are only designed to screen animals for known diseases,” said Cyril Rosen of the International Primate Protection League. “But if there is no evidence of illness, and the virus has never been identified before, there can be no effective screening.”

The university firmly denies that there is any danger, however, and has stressed that its containment is state-of-the-art. It also pointed out that its primates will not suffer pain.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.