National Institutes of Health
An NIH research fellow conducts research at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
As a virologist and a former associate director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, I observed firsthand the development of various treatments and cures—a process that is complex, sometimes frustrating, and often exhilarating. Now President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are dismantling the research infrastructure that made all that progress possible.
Funding cuts, firings, and program closures at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have left tens of thousands of dedicated professionals unable to continue their potentially life-saving work. The hopes of countless trainees for careers in science have been dashed, or at least threatened. The world’s most successful health science and public health apparatus is being shredded, putting all of us at great risk of chronic and infectious disease.
One story about the power of life science research is told in “Fire with Fire,” a 2012 short documentary about the first cure of childhood leukemia using specially designed immune cells called CAR T-cells. In this treatment, developed at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the patient’s T-cells—white blood cells that play a vital role in the immune system—are taken from the patient and isolated in the lab. There they are genetically modified to attack and kill leukemia cells before being injected back into the patient.
After the treatment, as Dr. Carl H. June of the University of Pennsylvania describes in the film, “it was like the calm after the storm, the clouds went away and she woke up and there was no leukemia.” His eyes fill with tears as he recalls this “amazing event.” The young girl in the film is now a healthy college student.
The development of CAR-T cells stretched over many years, involving labs all over the country and world. It was wonderful science—sometimes messy, sometimes brilliant, sometimes depressing, and sometimes thrilling. It involved countless experiments, each shining a glimmer of light, guiding the science to the next theory to be tested, step by step. Most of this research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supporting thousands of dedicated Ph.D.s, MDs, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and research staff.
Many of these scientists, like me, came from humble backgrounds. I grew up in a paper mill town in central Pennsylvania. My father’s work at the mill made it possible for me to go to college, where science became alive for me. People may see scientists as elite and aloof professionals in their white lab coats, but we’re also your neighbors who share similar past experiences.
CAR-T cells research represents just one example of the power of science in the United States. Over the years, research and public health initiatives have made life better for all Americans, reducing suffering from so many chronic and infectious diseases. Such an effective nationwide science infrastructure cannot be privatized; no pharmaceutical company could support even a small fraction of the infrastructure required for this type of long-term research.
Without this substantial public investment, these advances would not have occurred. The young girl with leukemia would have died. CAR-T cells would have eventually been developed in another country, years later, after too many needless deaths.
This administration is forging a fate filled with disease, suffering, and unnecessary death. We must embrace science and stop this senseless destruction while we still can.
This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.