The consequences of these cuts slowly infiltrate the daily life of our children and children, long after this administration has left its functions.
(Michael Werner) The postdoctoral student of the University of Utah, Julie Jung, is looking for nematodes near certain surface microbialites.
Just in time for the month of pride, researchers working with diligence towards a long -awaited HIV vaccine were informed last week that their work would be abandonedbecoming decades of investment and progress against the pandemic. This is only one of the last devastating blows treated in the current war against science.
You have surely heard how much science is besieged in the United States. In short, Trump proposed Fy2026 The budget would mark a massive and unprecedented budget cuts For the two main scientific donors in the country: the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
As a UTAH scientist, I fear that we did not immediately feel the full impact of these sudden and radical cuts in scientific expenditure. The consequences are slowly infiltrating the daily life of our children and our children, long after this administration has left its functions.
I immigrated to this country when I was a child, raised by an American system full of opportunities and promises. I was the first in my family to get my university degree, and I never really left. Preat Wonder held my hand through the many obstacles of my post-graduate studies. All the few years, I gave all my earthly effects in a single backpack, everything I needed to start a new laboratory work in another university in an unknown city. My story is not atypical of academics in this country. Never stressed but never annoyed, I always consider myself lucky to have learned something new every day of my life.
Today, I am a deputy professor of cellular and molecular biology at the Weber State University. I owe my career – teach and supervise the next generation of scientists – to finance fundamental science by NSF and NIH.
In my laboratory, we study the extremophiles or animals that survive in stressful environments. Research on the ends has led to many instrumental surprises. Taq Polymérase – a commercial enzyme used to diagnose diseases and amplify the DNA of crime scenes – was initially isolated from thermophilic bacteria in the spectacular Hot sources from Yellowstone National Park.
To explore molecular mechanisms of how animals adapt to extreme environments such as high heat, strong salinity or lack of oxygen, we study organisms such as nematodes and trees, both in the laboratory and in the field, and use genetics as a discovery tool.
Basically, a genetic approach shows how things work by breaking the instructions manual and seeing what is happening. For example, we can make “genetic forward” screens in laboratory nematodes, in which we use chemicals and X -rays to mutate their DNA at random and observe what changes arrived at worms. We can then trace these mutations to identify which specific genes allow nematodes to survive in the extreme environment – essentially creating a genetic survival roadmap.
The terms used to describe this type of not animated research not of hypothesis are a “descriptive search” or a “fundamental science”, in which the information is collected without a particular question to the mind and analyzed in order to find new models.
At a time when continuing the treatment or healing of specific diseases is a major engine, this type of fundamental science is not always easy to justify. However, the advantages of fundamental science are well documented as a global engine for rescue, treatments and technologies. For example, this system has been able to transform decades of basic research on mRNA into safe and effective products – such as COVVI -19 vaccines from COVID -19 supported by the Federal Government – deformation speed. Likewise, recent hardening progress sickle cell illness and metabolic A disease using the edition of the genome mediated by CRISPR has been built on the curious observation of repetitive DNA sequences in bacteria 1987.
I saw how fundamental scientific research generates fascinating unexpected results first. By discovering a new kind of nematode In our large neighboring salty lake, we came across symbiotic bacteria that improve survival in extreme salinity in laboratory nematodes. These cross-Kingdom associations could be the key to new questions and methodologies linked to the survival of the extremophiles and can probably be exploited in the future to benefit the growth of plants in a changing environment. Unexpected ways like these convinced me of the value of fundamental scientific research.
As planting a seed, the advantages of fundamental science take the time to take root, grow and materialize in society. Private companies tend to undervest in fundamental science because it benefits society as a whole and long-term, rather than the immediate results of the company. But each dollar spent in public science by the NIH ultimately generates $ 2.56 in economics to go out. In the long term, these reductions proposed to financing fundamental research and development will cost the economy billion Each year, just to fill the pockets with a few.
If you appreciate science, please Call your representative And urges them to reject Trump’s spending plan.
(Julie Jung) Dr. Julie Jung is a deputy professor at the Weber State University zoology department.
Dr Julie Jung is a deputy professor at the Weber State University zoology department. This test represents his own opinions, not those of his employers. This article is part of a national effort, called McClintock letters, to communicate the role of scientific financing in society. Click on the Citizens for Science is committed to giving comments: tiny.cc/Sciencept.
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