The chairman of a committee set up to help US National Institutes of Health decide to pursue biomedical and behavioral research with chimpanzees resigned . The organizers of the committee - the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Research Council, revealed in an oblique noted June 8 that President
John Stobo, who oversees health science and service the University of California system (UC), "will not be on the committee." Stobo did not respond to an inquiry about his departure.
Stobo, who chaired the first meeting of the committee on May 26, is the third scientist was "provisionally approved" to participate and then removed. ( Nature news blog first reported on the committee changes earlier today.) Although it is not known why Stobo left, a committee member who asked not to be named said Science Insider IOM said it "could be considered" as Stobo was biased for animal research because of its position UC.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) complained to the President of IOM Harvey Fineberg in a letter on May 24 that the committee was "significantly unbalanced," noting alleged conflict of interest of several members. Neither UC nor Stobo was mentioned in the letter, but he made only the institutions behind the other two members who left the committee. One was Alan Leshner, executive director of the AAAS Science s editor. The Board of AAAS advocated research primates in the past. The other member of the former committee was veterinary Leticia Medina of Abbott Laboratories, which used chimpanzees in research on hepatitis C.
HSUS is a key sponsor of a bill now before the US Congress, the Great Law of the cost savings of the Ape protection and prohibiting search "invasive" captive chimpanzees.
Christine Stencel, a spokesman for the IOM, said he did not discuss details of service to members. "We have mutually determined that these people will not be on the committee," said Stencel. "The process is confidential."
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