Weekly reads: blowtorch to American science, stem cells for teeth & stroke

In all the time I’ve been a scientist I never worried about American science until the last month.

Even during the first Trump administration, while there were challenges, I felt like things would generally be okay. Research continued. One of my daughters and I went to the Science March in 2017 in Sacramento. We bumped into a few of my medical students here at UC Davis Medical School.

There were worries, but not like now.

Attacks on American science intensify: from NIH scientist, “We’re fucked”

It’s an odd feeling today to be sensing now that American science is in deep trouble under Trump 2.0. There’s also no clear hope of things getting better for years to come.

It has been a rough week after three other terrible weeks. Thousands of federal scientists have been fired or laid off for no good reason. It has become clear that the NIH is unable to issue almost any new grants under the new administration and is at least $1B behind in funding research already in 2025.

Remarkably, the stodgy journal Nature quoted an anonymous NIH science officer on Thursday this way: “We’re fucked.” It’s an extreme statement but accurate. It’s also how many scientists across the country feel right now.

Keep in mind that if American biomedical science is screwed, then America in general is also screwed.

Why?

Fewer medical and other scientific discoveries

The public needs to know the consequences including the reality that there will be fewer new treatments for them and their loved ones in the future because science is under attack.

With RFK Jr. at the helm of HHS, I also expect that we’ll see the FDA approving “treatments” that just aren’t helpful but do pose risks to the public. Kennedy seems to like things like unproven stem cells and a host of iffy peptides.

These impacts mean power health for Americans.

Biomedical science is also a huge job creator.

Unless something radically changes for the better, probably tens or hundreds of thousands of scientists at universities and biotechs across the U.S. will be losing their jobs in 2025. Institutions will be unable to hire thousands more to keep science going. Biomedical research centers will also take fewer graduate students because there’s just no money. It’s already happening.

Then there are mass firings and cuts to other areas of science like NSF, with national security implications.

Overall, it’s a case of America shooting itself in the foot. There’s no sense to it. Keeping amazing American science going is something that people of all political parties can agree upon so it’s a mystery to me how there haven’t been more challenges to this self-destructive policy approach in part driven by an unchained Elon Musk.

Maybe efforts to push back will get going. There will be a national science march/protest the first week of March.

More regenerative reads

• Scientists grew human-like teeth in pigs. Could it lead to living tooth replacements?NPR. Stem cell-based tooth replacement is one of the most exciting areas of regenerative medicine. See: Lessons from sharks: how we might grow new teeth via stem cells
• The Erasing of American Science, The Atlantic (via Yahoo). A look at recent events in science like those discussed earlier. What’s your go-to analogy for what’s happening to science? Eraser? Blowtorch? Nuke?
• Neural stem cell transplant improves outcomes for chronic ischemic stroke at 12 months, Healios. It’s been a dozen years or more that we’ve been hearing about encouraging but small studies on stem cells for stroke. It’s an idea that should work for at least some partial recovery but just hasn’t had much progress so far.