In 1961 a colony of South American marmosets was established at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (later [1966] Oak Ridge Associated Universities) to study the immune aspects of bone marrow transplantation. In 1967 ORAU built a 10,000-square-foot facility containing labs and offices and to house the marmoset colony. The building could house 450 marmosets in 12 rooms with carefully controlled environments. ORAU’s colony of marmosets was the only one in the United States being developed for general lab research. In 1979 ORAU built a 2,250-square-foot marmoset breeding facility to propagate the marmoset colony for biomedical research. (Other than behavioral observations, no experimental studies were permitted in this breeding facility).
In 1981 the marmoset program became a project headed by the laboratory director at the Comparative Animal Research Laboratory (CARL). In 1988 ORAU took the lead in forming the Marmoset Research Center of Oak Ridge (MARCOR), a consortium of universities and industries interested in conducting biological research in marmosets and tamarins, the only animals besides humans that develop colon cancer spontaneously.
In 1992 ownership of the Marmoset Research Center was transferred to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Under the agreement, UT assumed responsibility for the animals, facilities, research programs, and personnel. At the time of the transfer, the colony included more than 200 cotton-top tamarins, 200 common marmosets, 15 saddleback tamarins, and 4 callimico goeldii. In 1997 the $300,000 annual cost of operations of the center required the university to disband it. Working with an advisory committee of representatives of noted animal protection groups, the colony was dispersed to zoos and animal protection facilities, placing all animals where they would be well cared for and safe for the rest of their lives.