Even under the best of circumstances, the monkeys used in AmplifyBio’s research have short, dismal lives. This is evidenced in a study published in June in the journal PLOS Pathogens, conducted at AmplifyBio on 25 macaques. The experiment required drilling holes in the monkeys’ skulls to deliver vaccine injections directly into their brains. After a month of observation, the study records, the animals were “humanely terminated,” and their brains harvested for research.

Macaques, which the article states AmplifyBio uses, are smart enough that the stone tools they make were briefly used as evidence of human presence in south america. Their tools were close enough to human tools as to fool some experts.