Federal cuts a narrow career pipeline for researchers in budding sciences in Oregon

Natalia Quintana Parrilla likes to be a science researcher. But the research assistant of Oregon Health and Science University, 24, said that work was sometimes exasperating.

“It’s very frustrating and you fail most of the time,” said Parrilla. “But these small moments, these moments of Eureka where you discover something – this feeling is indescribable.”

Parrilla, who grew up and went to the University of Puerto Rico, has always loved biology. And she has a talent to analyze the data. Thus, obtaining a doctorate in science and following a research path would be a reasonable career option for it.

But starting this career is not always clear, especially for young people like Parrilla who may not know if scientific research suits them. This is why she applied for the postbaccalaureate research education program of Oregon Health and Science University, or PREP.

The competitive program and one year acts as a bridge between undergraduate studies and higher cycles. It is designed to give college graduates with a minimum of experience of experience in pursuing a career in research in biomedical sciences.

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Parrilla will finish the program this month.

“I am a completely changed person,” said Parrilla about her preparation year. “I feel more independent and more confident about my decisions with regard to my research and as regards what I want to do in my career.”

But Parrilla is among the last graduates of the Ohsu program.

The preparation is funded by the federal government by an agency as the National Institutes of Health. In April, all the schools that had received preparation for preparation were informed that their subsidies had been dismissed. Preparation subsidies seem to be part of a wider set of doctoral training programs that were nixed by NIH this year.

The termination comes as the Trump administration changes to eradicate all education initiatives that do not align with its priorities, including efforts to level the rules of the game for people from low -income or marginalized environments.

Preparation defenders say that getting rid of these programs threaten American scientific research innovation. He also closes the door to career opportunities for young researchers.

Help young researchers take a step in place

For some, going forward in the world of scientific research is a wrestling.

Those who choose to continue a doctorate. In science, it takes a year or more experience in a research laboratory before being accepted in higher level programs. But students who do not know this often tacit requirement are perplexed by how to advance their career.

This was the case for Joselinne Medrano, a graduate student of the third year of the Ohsu who was prepared four years ago.

“I remember that doctors who rise to the cold asked,” Can I be shaded? ” “Said Medrano about trying to catch up with peers who already had years of research experience. She has been rejected several times.

Medrano, who says that she has always been curious about science, grew up outside Denver in a family that occupied blue passes. His mother is a housewife and Medrano describes his father as a workers of the day of all the hunter.

“I did not know that there were buildings full of laboratories so that people do research. It was not a concept that I had,” said Medrano. “But the people who grew up in professional career households are aware of these things.”

And they generally know which steps to take and what links must be established to become a science researcher. Preparation programs like that of the Ohsu aimed to fill this lack of knowledge for students.

“Our program is intended for people who wish to do research on the doctorate in a biomedical field, but who did not really have much chance of doing a lot of research during their first cycle years,” said Gary Westbrook, main scientist at the Vollum Institute in Ohsu. He helped launch university preparation in 2018.

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The program offers its researchers a year of practical research experience in a laboratory led by an OHSU scientist. Participants are also twinned with an Ohsu teacher who acts as a mentor. In addition to the work experience, students receive career preparation advice and help apply for higher education programs in research universities.

“If they do not get this experience, they will not be scientists,” said Westbrook of preparation graduates. “It is not like we are making them a favor. We really want the widest, the most intelligent and the most motivated people working in science. ”

Most funds from the NIH grant help pay the preparation researchers an annual allowance that is equivalent to around $ 55,000, including the benefits, per student.

There is a huge need for training programs like PREP who help students in transition, said Westbrook. Ohsu’s program obtains more than 100 requests per year. With the available resources, the program is unable to offer only five positions per year.

But now, with the termination of the subsidy, the very existence of preparation is in danger.

Federal cuts to financing university research

The decrees of the early days of the Trump administration ordered federal agencies to eliminate the waste, fraud and abuses of taxpayers’ dollars.

Order This apparently stopped funding for preparation and other training programs called on agencies to put an end to “all discriminatory programs, including illegal dei and” diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility “, policies, programs, preferences and activities of the federal government, under any name they appear.”

The NIH worked to comply with federal directives by eliminating grant programs and imposing a much smaller ceiling on reimbursement costs associated with research grants. Some of these movements are disputed in court.

The cuts have hampered research universities across the country. Some schools anticipate Massive Budget Rackels This could cause discounts of labor and programs.

Oregon received more than $ 388 million in NIH funding last year, According to federal data. More than 70% of this funding, 277 million dollars, was awarded to the OHSU.

Some researchers graduated from the OHSU fear that these layoffs finally limit scientific research and will lead to negative results on public health.

“These students are determined to eradicate diseases, to help vulnerable populations and to advance the borders of the sciences,” said Yessica Santana Agréda, a fifth year doctorate. OHSU neuroscience program candidate. She also graduated from the preparation.

“It makes no sense to withdraw these programs,” said Agréda. “It comes to a detriment, of course, to the person who applies for the preparation program, but also to science as a whole.”

Calling on young people with different history also benefits scientific research work, said former preparation researcher Tony Munoz.

“If you try to solve the problems by yourself or with people who all have a very similar way of thinking, then you will not be able to answer questions at best,” said Munoz.

“When you introduce diversity into the equation, you open different ways of thinking that can help you solve this problem.”

Do not abandon

Although the federal funding is cut, the organizers behind the preparation of the OHSU say that they will not let it die.

More than 140 students asked to be in the next cohort.

“There is a real need there,” said Westbrook about the large number of requests for the training program. “Science is not a meritocracy.”

To maintain the program alive, Westbrook and his colleagues draw all the financing levers at his disposal: request more university support, search for private donors from local donors and use existing laboratory funds instead of submerging money to pay students’ allowances.

Ohsu covers the current cohort allowance until the end of their year of program, which ends on June 30.

Parrilla is not sure of what her future has in store for us once the program is finished. Graduated research positions become even more difficult to find this year, universities have reduced admissions to graduates and even offers canceled due to financial uncertainty.

So far, Parrilla has had no offer. But she says she will not give up.

She said that her preparation year had taught her to keep her values ​​and dreams: being a researcher in good faith with her own laboratory.

“I want to supervise people who have experience similar to mine, where they understood that they wanted to do a late research,” said Parrilla.

“And if possible, I would like to open a laboratory in Puerto Rico and give this chance to my community there.”