Dallas Hyde, an authority on the biology of asthma and other
lung diseases, has been named as the new director of the
California Regional Primate Research Center at the University
of California, Davis.


Hyde, a professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine, has
served as interim director of the center since 2000, and as
associate dean for research and graduate education for the
veterinary school since 1997.


"Dallas Hyde has done an outstanding job as interim director
of our primate center. He is an excellent scientist and
administrator, and he has the strong support of the primate
center personnel," said Barry Klein, vice chancellor for
research. "I am confident that under his continuing
leadership, the primate center will continue to excel and
extend the influence that its cutting-edge research has on
the UC Davis and nationwide research communities."


"I am eager to move my research laboratory to join the team
of superb investigators at the primate center and Center for
Comparative Medicine," Hyde said. "It is a true honor to
provide leadership to programs of excellence in infectious
diseases like vaccine development to prevent HIV
transmission, neurologic disorders like autism and
Alzheimer's disease, and lung diseases like asthma."


"Our new focus on childhood health research is aimed at
providing the missing science in primates to enhance medical
treatments of AIDS, autism and asthma in children," he said.


In addition to his administrative duties, Hyde maintains an
active research program. He is part of a UC Davis team that
has conducted pioneering research on the relationship between
air pollution, common allergies and asthma, using the rhesus
macaque monkey as a research model for these ailments.


In 2000, the team's research showed for the first time that
occasional exposure to the air pollutant ozone can change how
the lungs of young rhesus monkeys develop and lead to a
disease similar to childhood asthma in humans.


Hyde's research focuses on the role of white blood cells in
both injury and repair of the tissue that lines the lungs,
especially in relationship to asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and
infectious diseases.


Before joining the UC Davis faculty, Hyde served from 1976 to
1979 in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University
of Florida, Gainesville.


He earned a doctoral degree in anatomy from UC Davis in 1976,
a master's degree in biology from Whittier College in 1972
and a bachelor's degree in biological science from UC Irvine
in 1967.


He assumes permanent leadership of the primate center just as
the 40-year-old research unit is poised for growth and
improvements.


This spring, UC Davis plans to begin expansion of the center,
located about a mile west of the main campus on County Road
98. The primate center is slated to grow from its current
population of 3,800 monkeys to about 5,000 monkeys. Plans
call for construction of new monkey field corrals and smaller
outdoor enclosures, as well as a research office building and
trailer, and a rodent facility for the campus's Center for
Comparative Medicine.


The primate center is one of eight regional primate centers
supported by the National Institutes of Health to conduct
research in selected areas related to human health. To
support its research program, the center maintains a large
primate-breeding program.


The center also provides monkeys, mostly rhesus macaques, to
research programs at seven UC campuses, as well as other
research institutions nationwide. These programs include
studies of cancer, asthma, AIDS, osteoporosis,
neurodegenerative diseases, and infant development and
nutrition.


Neurobiologist John Morrison, who had been named in October
to assume the primate center directorship, decided for
personal reasons to remain in his position at New York's
Mount Sinai School of Medicine.


-- Dallas Hyde, Primate Center, (530) 752-0420,
dmhyde@ucdavis.edu