{"id":45946,"date":"2026-09-28T03:43:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T03:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/this-is-vegan.com\/?p=45946"},"modified":"2026-09-28T03:43:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T03:43:58","slug":"harvard-monkey-experiments-nih","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/this-is-vegan.com\/en\/harvard-monkey-experiments-nih\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard Monkey Experiments: NIH Announced the End, but Livingstone’s Lab Still Gets Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

In late May 2025, the US National Institutes of Health announced a win: funding for Harvard studies that included sewing young monkeys’ eyes shut had been terminated.<\/strong> Sixteen months later, the agency’s own grant database looks different. Neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone is still listed as principal investigator on four active NIH projects, and on September 11, 2026 a new award of $850,148 went through. The story was raised by the Daily Caller, a conservative US news site, on September 23. We checked the grant records ourselves, and the picture is murkier than either side would like.<\/p>\n

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In short<\/p>\n

The NIH posted on X on May 29, 2025 that it had terminated funding for Harvard studies involving monkeys whose eyes were sewn shut. NIH RePORTER still lists four projects led by Margaret Livingstone. In 2026, $576,201 went to a primate research project and $850,148 to a Harvard-wide vision research core.<\/p>\n

What remains unclear is whether the contested experiments on infant monkeys continue. The two projects that describe abnormal early visual experience show no new funding for 2026 so far. According to the Daily Caller, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Livingstone and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What happened.<\/span><\/h2>\n

On May 29, 2025, the official NIH account wrote on X that it had terminated “funding at Harvard University for studies that included sewing the eyes of young monkeys shut.” The post grouped this with ending experiments on cats and dogs in military labs. Animal rights groups celebrated, PETA in particular, which had campaigned against Livingstone’s lab for two and a half years. The agency did not name a grant number.<\/p>\n

On September 21, 2026, HHS launched a new overview page on its effort to reduce animal testing<\/a>. The Harvard case is still listed there as a milestone: “Cut funding” to a Harvard lab, dated May 28, 2025.<\/p>\n

Two days later, the Daily Caller published a piece by reporter Emily Kopp arguing that the NIH under Jay Bhattacharya was keeping the project alive despite the announcement. The Daily Caller is a conservative outlet, and the article focuses heavily on Bhattacharya’s ties to Harvard. We are not adopting that political framing. The funding figures, however, can be checked in public records.<\/p>\n

What the NIH grant database shows.<\/span><\/h2>\n

In NIH RePORTER<\/a>, the public database of all NIH funding, Margaret S. Livingstone of Harvard Medical School was listed as of September 28, 2026 as principal investigator on four projects:<\/p>\n