\n<\/p>\n
A new round of scientific grant cancellations has hit brain health and Alzheimer\u2019s disease research at two leading research institutions, Emory University and the University of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
The latest cancellations are the Trump administration\u2019s most recent effort to remove disfavored topics from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) $47bn scientific portfolio \u2013 and appear to target the study of the impacts of racism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kind of clear political interference \u2013 that\u2019s not a good way to do science,\u201d said Ann Cohen, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, whose grant was canceled. \u201cI haven\u2019t even thought much about the why this is being done because it\u2019s so scientifically wrong that I can\u2019t get past that piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohen, and all researchers the Guardian interviewed, spoke in their personal capacity.<\/p>\n
The Guardian has contacted representatives of the US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, for an explanation of the cancellations. It did not receive a response.<\/p>\n
At least three grants were canceled between the two institutions. In total, the cancellations represent $15m in grants that were meant to study how discrimination affects long-term brain health \u2013 millions of which have already been invested in the work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose things we\u2019re measuring are scientifically valid concepts,\u201d said University of Pittsburgh associate professor of epidemiology Andrea Rosso, who co-led a grant canceled by the administration. \u201cWhoever was doing this saw the words they didn\u2019t like in our grant.\u201d<\/p>\n
An estimated 7.4 million people in the US live with Alzheimer\u2019s disease or dementia. The disease primarily affects older people, but is not considered a normal part of ageing. Although a majority of those people living with Alzheimer\u2019s disease are white, Black Americans are twice as likely to develop it or dementia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t actually measure structural racism. We use that as a framing for why one population is at such high risk,\u201d said Rosso. \u201cWe can\u2019t come up with an intervention that\u2019s going to stop structural racism \u2013 wish we could.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cancellations are the Trump administration\u2019s latest disruption of scientific research, including Alzheimer\u2019s disease research. In the spring of 2025, the administration canceled billions of dollars in federal grants with a perceived connection to \u201cDEI\u201d, or diversity, equity and inclusion. That kicked off lawsuits from major research institutions.<\/p>\n
A federal judge ruled those cancellations were illegal and ordered their reinstatement. However, the Trump administration won in a shadow docket ruling from the supreme court, when justices voted 5-4 in an unsigned ruling that allowed the administration to cancel $783m in NIH funding.<\/p>\n
Grants targeted in this round of cancellations are not covered by that litigation. As a result, one leading attorney argued these cancellations represent a new round of \u201ctest cases\u201d \u2013 a legal strategy the administration may be hoping is more legally defensible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration, particularly [HHS] Secretary Kennedy, has followed a very clear pattern,\u201d said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown Law. \u201cThey do something that\u2019s clearly unlawful, they get slapped down by a federal court and then they try to cobble together a strategy that does basically the same thing but is legally defensible. I think that\u2019s what\u2019s going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n
NIH grants are typically awarded for several years and have regular check-ins with the funding institution. But Cohen and Rosso all had grants delayed for months in 2025 \u2013 at the time, the administration held up $65m in funding for a group of leading Alzheimer\u2019s disease research centers nationally. Then, this winter, grants expected in January and February at both institutions did not come until June 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, we were basically trying to run the study on a shoestring, and a lot of people didn\u2019t get paid,\u201d said Negar Fani, associate professor of psychiatry at Emory University.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotionFree newsletter | Around 2-3 times a day<\/p>\n
Sign up to Breaking News US<\/span><\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Funds were awarded in June this year, but letters contained new termination language. By the end of July, the group had been notified their grants were canceled.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were running on fumes until we could get the second year of funds; those came in June, but the termination followed one month later,\u201d said Fani.<\/p>\n At Pittsburgh, a canceled grant led by Rosso studied how Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk was affected in people who live in divested, predominantly African American neighborhoods. Cohen\u2019s canceled grant studied socially driven Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk factors by collecting surveys, brain imaging and blood samples. Those risk factors were once framed as \u201cindividual\u201d, but have increasingly come to be seen as outside individual patients\u2019 control.<\/p>\n At Emory, a grant led by Fani studied the impact of racial discrimination on the white matter of the brain, in part surveying participants\u2019 self-reported incidences of discrimination, and outfitting them with wearable devices, performing MRIs and conducting a sophisticated data fusion analysis.<\/p>\n The NIH\u2019s director, Dr Jay Bhattacharya, said in letters described to the Guardian that \u201cthe project no longer effectuates NIH\u2019s priorities\u201d, and that \u201cthe lack of concrete, objective and measurable variables is not in alignment with NIH\u2019s priorities\u201d. In more than one letter, the cancellation focused on the fact that research included surveys, including self-reports of discrimination.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s most frustrating to me about all of this is this assertion that \u2013 in the most basic way \u2013 the assertion that our outcomes are not measurable or scientific,\u201d Cohen said. \u201c[It] demonstrates a lack of understanding of our outcomes versus our exposures \u2013 that\u2019s epidemiology 101.\u201d<\/p>\n A letter to Fani similarly emphasized the inclusion of surveys as problematic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was saying that self-reported measures are not scientifically valid, and as a scientist that would rule out a large portion of our entire field,\u201d said Fani. \u201cWe ask people about their trauma, and symptoms, and depression, to lifestyle, to their reports about alcohol and substance abuse, their reports about physical pain and medication usage.<\/p>\n \u201cThose perceptions get under the skin, into the brain, and affect in real ways health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new round of scientific grant cancellations has hit brain health and Alzheimer\u2019s disease research at two leading research institutions, Emory University and the University of Pittsburgh. The latest cancellations are the Trump administration\u2019s most recent effort to remove disfavored topics from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) $47bn scientific portfolio \u2013 and appear to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[794,10032,25189,2274,1193,3141,81,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-51817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-alzheimers","10":"tag-casualty","11":"tag-dei","12":"tag-latest","13":"tag-research","14":"tag-trump","15":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}