FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2002
FY02-40
Marmoset Research Center Demolished
OAK RIDGE, TENN -- The Marmoset Research Center at Oak Ridge (MARCOR), located on the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) main campus, was recently demolished. Cleanup is ongoing.
The building, which once housed 400 monkeys, had been vacant since 1997. According to Eddy Whitson, a manager in ORAU’s Facilities and Transportation Department, a 1995 study “concluded that the building was not suitable for any use ORAU was likely to have need for in the foreseeable future and that it would cost more to reconfigure and remodel the building than to build new or lease.” Grass will be planted where the building stood.
The marmoset research program at ORAU began in 1961. At one time MARCOR housed one of the largest marmoset colonies in the United States and the largest cotton-top tamarin colony in the world. The cotton-top tamarin is the only animal species besides humans that spontaneously develops colon cancer and researchers investigated the causes of the colon cancer and attempted to find corollaries with human colon cancer. MARCOR was closed due to a lack of funding.