The Trump administration is making significant changes in public health funding, aiming to restore trust and eliminate waste. However, these shifts have led to unintended consequences, with universities reporting that vital studies are being mislabeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and consequently losing funding.

One such case involves Fyodor Urnov, a scientist who fled the Soviet Union to pursue biomedical research in the U.S. Urnov recently contributed to groundbreaking gene editing work that treated a newborn in New Jersey. The research, like many others, was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Unfortunately, numerous NIH-funded studies at universities have been halted due to the administration’s focus on cutting initiatives perceived as DEI-driven or COVID-19-centric. President Trump’s proposed $18 billion cut to NIH funding further exacerbates the situation.

Researchers like Scott Weaver at the University of Texas Medical Branch and Andy Johns at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have seen their projects defunded or terminated, even though they were not solely focused on DEI. The repercussions include layoffs, reduced workloads, and potential setbacks in critical medical research efforts.

As these funding challenges persist, researchers and institutions are striving to find solutions to continue their important work, despite the significant impact of the funding cuts on their projects and the broader scientific community.