During Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-MN) questioned Dr. Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Publisher at the Science American Association for the Advancement of Science, about the effect of cuts to federal funding grants on the next generation in biomedical research.
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00:00Senator Baldwin. Thank you. And I want to thank our chair and vice chair for this hearing and the opportunity to discuss the importance of biomedical research and what the Trump administration's actions will mean for scientists, for research institutions, and most importantly, for patients.
00:19The Trump administration has eliminated 222 active training grants, stripping away more than $180 million from research institutions in 37 states. These programs train undergraduate researchers, master's students, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and early career scientists as they transition to faculty positions.
00:45In total, the administration has canceled $5 million in grants for the Medical College of Wisconsin, and I would like to request that a statement by the Medical College of Wisconsin be submitted for the record.
00:59Without objection.
01:00The administration has also canceled more than $10 million in grants to the University of Wisconsin.
01:07This means fewer jobs for Wisconsinites, fewer young scientists launching their careers, at a time when the average age for receiving their first research project grant is already in the mid-40s.
01:22It means delaying research into life-saving cures and treatments. So I'd like to ask Dr. Parikh and Dr. Schlechtman, what are the long-term implications of these actions on the next generation of scientists, on research institutions, and on America's leadership in biomedical innovation?
01:45Senator Baldwin, thank you for that question. This is the thing that worries me the most.
01:49As I travel across the country, and in the last few weeks I've been across the country talking at institutions, and the concern, the angst amongst our early career scientists, and that's even pre-graduate school, that's undergraduates, is enormous.
02:04And it is the biggest worry I have because they are considering things I've never heard before.
02:09Some are saying, perhaps I should just choose something outside the sciences.
02:12And then those who have their goals set on curing cancer or curing Alzheimer's, they've started looking elsewhere.
02:19Not just foreign nationals, Americans born in this country.
02:24And there are examples of this, of them being recruited all from around the world.
02:28There's a recruitment from a university in France. I can't say the name because I can't speak French.
02:32But there are real numbers there. 400 people applied. 136 of them or so are American citizens.
02:40We are going to lose talent in a way that we've never seen before.
02:43And industry needs that talent as well. This is not just about academics.
02:47This is about our industry, our GDP, and jobs.
02:49Yeah. Dr. Suckman?
02:52Yes. Thank you, Senator. I would agree with that wholeheartedly.
02:56I think that even before this, there has been kind of this trail off of young trainees being interested in science.
03:07But what we've seen over the last several months has just accelerated that.
03:12And it's accelerated in a way that's kind of created this perfect storm where multiple factors have come together to lead to significant losses.
03:21Many universities and medical schools in this country have elected to, for example, cut the number of graduate students that they have in their first class by 50%, some even 75%.
03:36So those are people who will not enter graduate school this year and therefore will not enter the scientific workforce in 10 years.
03:45I'd also like to give an example, which I find particularly disheartening and I think really embolizes or emphasizes the situation that we're in right now.
03:55I have a very good colleague, a friend of mine, who is a researcher at the NCI.
04:00He works in my field. He is nothing short of brilliant.
04:05He is a member of the National Academy of Science.
04:07He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
04:09He has been doing research at the NCI on DNA damage response and genome stability for 30 years.
04:19He is now looking at positions in Europe and Canada.
04:24Is this what we want?
04:26Is this what we want for the next generation of researchers and for our current generation?
04:34Mrs. Stenson, thank you so much for sharing your family story with us today.
04:38We saw reports just last week that Alzheimer's disease patients may lose access to clinical trials
04:45due to the Trump administration's decision to halt $65 million in funding to Alzheimer's disease research centers.
04:53About a dozen of those centers are actually running out of their funding today.
04:58The Trump administration is also withholding $47 million from nine cancer centers across the country.
05:04And this funding was approved months ago.
05:09This isn't wasteful government spending.
05:12The Trump administration is putting real people's lives at risk.
05:15Meanwhile, they have fired more than 5,000 staff at the National Institutes for Health,
05:22which is delaying promising research on cancer immunotherapy treatments like Charlie received.
05:28Mrs. Stenson, what would delays for promising cancer treatments mean for families like yours?
05:36It would mean we don't have other options to help our kids.
05:39And I know plenty of families who are waiting for new trials to come out.
05:43They're just sitting and waiting.
05:45And that is so miserable and devastating that they're waiting for more.
05:50And if the existing ones are getting cut, what are we going to do instead?