AFTER a 16-year tour of duty, Frederick A. King, PhD, an outspoken defender of animal research, retired September 1 as director of Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center of Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.
His replacement, Thomas R. Insel, MD, a psychiatrist-turned-neuroscientist, is the first physician to head what is widely regarded as the flagship of the seven primate research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
With its large colonies of 10 monkey species, gibbons (the lesser ape), and all four species of great apes, the Yerkes center is a major site for basic research into cardiovascular disease, congenital vision defects, AIDS and other infectious diseases, Parkinson's disease, drug addiction, fertility control, and many other areas of biomedicine as well as studies in social behavior and conservation (see following article).
King, who led the Yerkes center during its period of maximum growth and maximum opposition from the animal rights