Cuts would threaten medical research
Among the Trump administration’s policies, a proposal to cut funding for biomedical research would have one of the most profound impacts on an important Memphis enterprise.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the University of Memphis are among local institutions involved in a thriving scientific research community that brings talent and resources to bear on many complex problems of modern medical science.
Research funded by the federal government and St. Jude, for example, resulted in the development of a new drug combination for the treatment of a rare eye cancer called retinoblastoma that is virtually always fatal if left untreated and when detected early enough still led to vision loss.
“And not only were they able to save more eyes, but functional vision, so that as these children grow up they’ll be able to save sufficient vision for getting a driver’s license and reading,” Michael Dyer, chairman of the Developmental Neurobiology Department at St. Jude, told The Commercial Appeal’s Kevin McKenzie.
Research funded by the National Institutes of Health pumped about $35 million into UTHSC last year, made up the bulk of $70 million in outside research funding for St. Jude and provided $6 million for research at the University of Memphis.
To help offset a proposed $54 billion increase in defense spending, Trump’s proposed budget cuts $5.8 billion, or about 18 percent, from NIH, and $900 million, or just under 20 percent, from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which funds national laboratories.
“The direct effects to university research, and especially to the current generation of young researchers early in their careers, could be catastrophic,” said Andy Meyers, vice president of research for the University of Memphis.
The NIH cuts, along with the Trump administration’s hiring freeze for federal workers and other policies, dampened the celebration that erupted in the waning days of the Obama administration with passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, labeled by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “the most important legislation Congress will pass this year.”
The bipartisan measure’s provisions include $4.8 billion over 10 years for the National Institutes of Health for programs such as President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, Vice President Joe Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot” and others.
This “Christmas miracle,” said Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a principal sponsor, will “find cures for cancer, fight opioid addiction, treat mental illness and better understand the brain to prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s.”
Now whatever opposition can be organized in Congress stands against administration proposals that threaten America’s position as a global leader in biomedical and energy research.
Along with the administration’s vow to eliminate research on climate change, these changes would shift the responsibility to solve some of science’s most difficult challenges onto the shoulders of future generations.