With NIH In Chaos, Scientists Fear Trump Will Hamstring Critical Medical Research

Forbes

The Trump Administration’s abrupt cancellation of National Institutes of Health meetings and grant reviews has sparked concerns that medical breakthroughs will be stalled and DEI initiatives shut down.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2025/01/24/with-nih-in-chaos-scientists-fear-trump-will-hamstring-critical-medical-research/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, with NIH in chaos, scientists fear Trump will hamstring critical medical research.

00:08Last Wednesday around 1.30 p.m. Pacific Time, Esther Chu, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University,

00:17got an email that the National Institutes of Health study section she was slated to sit on the next day was canceled.

00:24Within hours, as word of NIH meeting cancellations pinged across the social media platform Blue Sky,

00:30she realized that this wasn't only about the opioid research she would be reviewing, but a broader NIH research shutdown.

00:38Chu noted that there was no announcement on the NIH website,

00:42but as it became clear that the cancellation involved all stages of scientific proposals in the grants review process,

00:48the reality sunk in, and she began to gauge best-case and worst-case possibilities.

00:53She said, quote,

00:55We are preparing for the worst. It's very stressful, especially when your entire career or training path hinges on it.

01:02The NIH is the crown jewel of American scientific research, investing most of its $47 billion budget on medical research.

01:11Without the NIH meetings, known as study sections, the agency can't review grants and thus can't make research awards.

01:19Those funds are critically important in helping researchers study cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and opioid addiction,

01:26among numerous other health issues, and have helped fund major breakthroughs,

01:30including Moderna's development of its mRNA vaccine against COVID-19.

01:36Vaccinations against COVID-19 saved at least 14 million people from dying in the first year.

01:42Pretty much every major university or medical institution relies on federal grants to fund their research,

01:48with big recipients of NIH funding including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

01:57A small proportion of funds, including those from federal healthcare research institution ARPA-H,

02:03go to healthcare and biomedical startups with promising early-stage research.

02:08ARPA-H had a meeting in San Francisco that was to draw more than 100 people on Thursday, but it was abruptly canceled.

02:15In the short term, the cancellation of these meetings means that some researchers who expect to receive funds in January will see those funds delayed,

02:23while others who had expected grant proposals slated to be reviewed would be subject to the challenges of rescheduling once the pause is lifted.

02:31Each review requires some two dozen researchers to meet at the same time to assess the scientific merit of proposals in their field once the pause is lifted.

02:40It's not clear if NIH grant review meetings will resume after February 1st, when the pause on federal health communications is slated to end.

02:48Longer term, researchers fear the Trump administration will use federal research funding as a cudgel to force universities and other institutions that receive it

02:57to assist in its purge of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

03:01The Wall Street Journal was the first to report that NIH grants would be a, quote,

03:05key lever in forcing schools such as Harvard and the University of California, San Francisco,

03:11which receive tens of millions in NIH research funding each year, to rework or drop their DEI initiatives.

03:18As word traveled among scientists about the cancellations of both NIH study sections and councils,

03:24which is the next step in a grant approval process, fear and uncertainty spread.

03:29There are at least 200 study sections each cycle, with three cycles a year,

03:33and each one can have dozens, or in certain cases, 100 different projects to review.

03:38This according to Rebecca Burdine, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University,

03:43who has a grant pending to look at congenital heart defects in zebrafish,

03:47which is a precursor to being able to do such studies in humans.

03:51Even short delays can be a problem in scientific research, Burdine said.

03:55With zebrafish, for example, if there isn't money to keep the fish facility running,

03:59it would take a lot of time, effort, and cash to restart it.

04:03She said, quote,

04:05People are thinking, if I don't get this grant,

04:07I might have to shut this research down, and it might not ever be feasible to start it back up again.

04:13For full coverage, check out Amy Feldman's piece on Forbes.com.

04:18This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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