'This is our livelihood': Trump proposal to cut funding leaves UNMC researchers in limbo
UNMC researchers explain financial concerns to Trump's proposal that holds NIH money.
UNMC researchers explain financial concerns to Trump's proposal that holds NIH money.
UNMC researchers explain financial concerns to Trump's proposal that holds NIH money.
A time of change in the biomedical industry looks like a game of limbo between researchers and President Donald Trump.
Inside UNMC, a mass spectrometer facility spawns modern miracles, like heart treatments to prevent cardiovascular disease, one of the top killers in Nebraska.
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Vice Chancellor for Research Ken Bayles keeps in constant contact with health leaders nationwide, tracking Trump’s orders. Bayles said Trump’s proposal decreases the amount of money available to support research. It cuts indirect costs required to support infrastructure, like the offices that ensure safety, space to work, and electricity to power the machines. The cut could ultimately shutter labs.
"There's been a lot of great work done at UNMC to develop new therapeutics in cancer and infectious diseases," Bayles said.
UNMC uses about $170 million in grants from a variety of sources, most of it coming from the National Institutes of Health — almost $100 million. The National Institutes of Health is proposing an indirect cost rate of 15 percent, down from 50 percent, meaning UNMC is left with about a $22 million decrease in the support to cover indirect costs.
"These types of things are supported primarily through the NIH, and without that support, these innovations and developments will go away," Bayles said.
Innovations like Ozempic were discovered in a lab. UNMC heart research doctor Rebekah Gundry says the drug used for diabetes and weight loss was discovered by a researcher studying venom from an animal.
"It started in an academic research laboratory. It wasn't set out to study to discover a drug that would be a treatment for diabetes. But it was part of that basic science research that was done in an academic laboratory that eventually led to the drug that everybody knows by name," said Dr. Rebekah Gundry, director of the Center for Heart and Vascular Research.
UNMC is a name known for its research. The hotbed is one of a number of facilities that would be stifled if the president's order were to follow through.
"You know, this is our livelihood. This is what we do. This is what is right for the citizens of the United States and the world," Bayles said.
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