LEMSIP or Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates, was a New York University research facility founded in 1965 by Edward Goldsmith and Jan Moor-Jankowski. The Tuxedo, New York-based outfit was a prominent vendor of primates and primate parts in the New York metropolitan area. These were used by area scientists for transplantation and virus research.

The facility was the subject of a documentary produced by National Geographic featured Jane Goodall. The award-winning episode, entitled Chimp Rescue, was broadcast in 1998, shortly after the closure of the facility. The documentary chronicled James Mahoney's efforts to save approximately one hundred primates prior to the closure of the facility.

Fallout

One of the likely contributing factors to the demise of LEMSIP was the revision of the caging requirements prescribed by the USDA. The upgrades would have cost the university at least two million U.S. dollars. As a result, custody of several specimen were passed on to the Coulston Foundation.

Moor-Jankowski, a member of the French Academy of Medicine accused the NYU in 1996 of his ouster as director of LEMSIP. He alleged that this act was retaliation for his blowing the whistle on former NYU primate addiction researcher Ron Wood.

References

• Lethal Kinship A report on the chimpanzees of The Coulston Foundation (in PDF format)
• Lethal Kinship A report on the chimpanzees of The Coulston Foundation (in DOC format)
• Society and Animals Forum December 1996 issue reporting on Moor-Jankowski's suit against NYU
• NYU to Quit Its Monkey Business Excerpt from Science magazine (published 06/02/95 Vol. 268, No. 5215, P. 1267)

See also

• Commensurating the closure of Coulston
• Animal Advocates Protest Plans for a Primate Lab NYT Excerpt
• NYU / LEMSIP timeline