Washington – Days after Withdraw from the National Institutes of HealthThe former agency director warned that two signature programs – an initiative to decipher the functioning of the brain and another to build a massive and diverse genomic database – are threatened by the actions of the Trump administration.
“These two revolutionary projects are now very at risk due to budget and labor clippings,” said Francis Collins about the brain and all of American projects during a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial-during one of the dozens of scientific rallies that were organized in the United States on Friday.
The brain initiative, launched during the Obama administration, develops technologies to map the way in which individual neurons and circuits interact, while all of us played a decisive role in the launch, seeks to gather genomic information and other health information of more than a million Americans, more than half of them, communities underrepresented Biomedical research, to better adapt medical care.
The last two months have been dark for many researchers – with interruptions from the scientific subsidy process, reductions in federal scientific workforce and reductions in researchers’ financing.
But, for an afternoon, scientists went down to the streets across the country, to find the community by behaving the first month of the Trump administration while laughing at a range of panels filled with words with messages such as “Cancer thank you Trump for the budget cuts of the NIH”, “Bad Doge” and “Time to React” with an image of a laboratory bottle.
Events have taken place in 32 cities across the country, with a handful of affiliated rallies in other university cities and campuses around the world. The message of the event of “defending science – because science is for everyone” was taken in stride. Many speakers and signs held by the participants welcomed diversity among scientists.
The headliner event took place in Washington, where around 2,000 people gathered and heard Collins make its first public appearance since retirement.
Collins called the Silicon Valley mantra “to move quickly and break things”, which was defended by Elon Musk and its American service when they reduced funding and the staff of the federal government.
“A better mantra would be” first of all not to harm “when decisions potentially disturb an institution with an incredibly positive assessment and will affect the future health of the nation,” said Collins.
Although there is a place for improving government efficiency, interventions should be based on scientific opportunities and public needs, not politics, he added.
Collins also emphasized Silence of pharmaceutical companies On the Trump administration wave of financing cuts.
“A recent study have shown that more than 99% of the new drug approvals depended on one way or another on the basic research sponsored by NIH. The industry therefore also has a lot to lose if the federal investment is damaged, “he said. “By the way, it would be good to find out more about that of pharmaceutical business leaders, saying.”
In Boston, several hundred people protested against the Boston Common, many wearing laboratory blouses and affiliates affiliated to university and waving signs. Many speakers have celebrated the fruits of scientific work, vaccines and drugs like Ozempic, artificial intelligence and mobile phones, while ridiculing prominent figures of the current administration.
“Government investment in the NIH has led to a science revolution. We have to live this revolution. It doesn’t happen often. So the idea that it is reduced or closed is just stupid F-id, “said Gary RuvkunA speaker at the Boston event which received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 2024.
Scientists from various stages in their career have deplored the effects of the Trump administration on their work. Several undergraduate students and graduate students went on stage, frustrated by the uncertainty of the realization of a career in science.
“It’s stressful. I graduated this year, and at the moment, the labor market in any aspect is quite difficult. It is just discouraging that we are facing this and that everyone in the field must step back, almost everyone has entered a job frost, “said Brianna Close, a virology doctorate. Student at the University of Boston.
Others have mentioned breaks in the financing resulting from the judgment of the NIH study sections, which examine research subsidies. “My own subsidy proposal, which was to examine last week, was not examined, and it is not clear how long my laboratory can last,” said Nancy Kanwisher, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drawing collective hua from the crowd.
In a survey of 342 Washington protests collected by a team led by Dana Fisher, a sociologist at the American University who studies activism, 81% cited funding gels and federal labor reductions as the main reason to participate. According to Fisher, about one in five participants attended their first demonstration.
A university professor, who preferred to remain anonymous, led eight hours of South Carolina to attend the DC rally. She declared in an interview that she was worried about the future of the financing of her students and postdoctoral researchers.
“I teach a course, and I have the impression of reorganizing the bridge chairs on the Titanic, because, like what it is for?” They try to kill the sciences and these students are future doctors and scientists, “she said.
Others have highlighted the importance of science and medicine in their own lives. Francis McMahon, himself an NIH researcher, held a sign that read “NIH research saved my life”.
“I had a stroke last year, and because of a treatment developed by the NIH and which was available in my community hospital, I walk here and speak today,” he said.