Washington National Primate Research Center

[1] The Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences Center on the Seattle campus of the University of Washington serves as the headquarters for the WaNPRC.

The current director of the WaNPRC is Dr. Michele A. Basso, Professor in Biostructure and Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Research at the center is conducted by a group of core staff scientists many of whom are also University of Washington faculty members.

These include bioengineering, biological structure, electrical engineering, global health, immunology, laboratory medicine, medical genetics, microbiology, obstetrics & gynecology, oncology, pathology, pharmaceutics, physiology & biophysics, and psychology.

[2] From 1966 through 1996, UW operated a Primate Field Station in Medical Lake, WA, in a former maximum-security prison building at Eastern State Hospital.

The first report from The Arizona Republic revealed that monkeys had been getting sick and dying from valley fever at high rates.

The third investigation by The Arizona Republic revealed several administrational problems at the WaNPRC, including a sexual harassment scandal.

The Arizona Republic report also described how the center also recently hired Michele A. Basso as its new director, whose research had been suspended at the University of Wisconsin in 2009 due to poor methodology.

[25] Additionally, UW had broken several laws as it failed to provide both certificates of veterinary inspection as well as entry permits for many of the primates being transported.

In August 2022, five members of the United States Congress wrote a letter to the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Lawrence A. Tabak, asking for an explanation as to why the WaNPRC was recently awarded a $65 million grant despite "serious ethical concerns and noncompliance issues" at the center.

[32][33] In October 2022, New Jersey senator Cory Booker wrote a letter to the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, asking him to investigate why the WaNPRC's base operational funding grant was renewed, despite multiple issues with the center, including failure to maintain biosecurity, repeated animal welfare violations, financial issues, and failure to comply with state and federal laws.