OHSU's Double Dose of Monkey News

Our cover story this week about primate research at OHSU pointed out the school's practice of creating positive publicity to divert attention from animal-rights activists.

So we weren't surprised when The Oregonian today published a piece about possible breakthroughs in viral engineering at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, the site where OHSU breeds monkeys for medical research.

But OHSU spokesman Jim Newman says the fact that the stories came out two days apart depended on decisions already made by editors at the prestigious journal Science.

The journal made the call to publish the findings today, Newman says, and editors put an embargo on the story that prevented other media from reporting on it until Thursday.

"That was a decision that Science made, not us," Newman says. WW independently confirmed that the timing was coincidence.

The study was carried out using rhesus macaques at the primate center's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute.