Biomedical research in America stands on the edge of a cliff. The executive orders to slash federal funding for research have frozen new grant awards. The courts stayed these sudden and drastic cuts, but the US Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health have not released their hold on the funding — money that Congress and the American people have allocated to find treatments for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, and to prevent epidemics. If this hold remains in place, labs will be forced to lay off a generation of brilliant young scientists and dedicated staff, and close down studies that are close to finding new cures. In just a few months, we will lose research infrastructure that took 60 years to build.
The American people did not vote for more cancer — these cuts must be reversed or everyone will pay the price.
Gina Turrigiano
Waltham
The writer is a professor with the department of biology at Brandeis University.
