MADISON, Wis. — Plans from President Donald Trump’s administration to cut federal funding for medical research could have a devastating effect on medical innovation at UW-Madison, one researcher warns.
“We really rely on NIH funding,” Jon Audhya, a professor and associate dean at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health said. “That reduction would have a huge negative impact on the institution. The university really couldn’t fill the gap.”
The National Institutes of Health issued a directive last week that would cap grant funding for overhead costs of research at 15%.
Wisconsin is one of 22 states that sued to challenge the directive, and a federal judge paused the funding cuts on Monday in order to hear the lawsuit. According to court filings, UW-Madison stands to lose at least $65 million a year if the cuts go into effect.
Watch: UW researcher warns that federal funding cuts could halt vital work
Audhya leads an eight-person lab at the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research seeking a cure for a rare disease called hereditary spastic paraplegia. They’ve made promising steps forward, and Audhya is eager to ultimately bring his work to a clinical trial.
“We’re trying to understand why neurons degenerate – and this is the case in Alzheimer’s disease, in Parkinson’s disease,” Audhya said. “We can take what we learn [from HSP] and hopefully translate that to other diseases that are much more widely known and affect a larger population.”
Audhya’s lab and dozens of other labs at UW-Madison rely on NIH funding to cover not just their work but also their overhead costs. UW-Madison is one of the top research institutions in the country, and a deal with NIH lets it use 55.5% of the grant money the university receives to cover expenses such as electricity and building maintenance.
“The indirect costs are the costs that are sort of a little less seen. How do we keep the lights on in the building? How do we plug in that microscope and allow it to function? All of the building maintenance and operations are critical for us to actually do our work,” Audhya said.
Other indirect expenses include ethical and safety oversight and administrative costs such as payroll and human resources. Without that funding, Audhya says his work would essentially be halted.
“The message that we’re sending now to the next generation of scientists is that the U.S. is divesting from biomedical research,” Audhya said. “That is the last thing we want to do as a country, in my opinion. I think that’s one of the things that has set us apart internationally.”
The first hearing in the federal lawsuit challenging the NIH directive is set for Feb. 21.
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