The cancelled grants to obtain the lights in Capitol Hill “Science Gallery”

Sumit Canda, Professor of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research It focuses on epidemics, making a profession of preparation for disasters.

But Chanda faced a different kind of disaster this year, when the future of his research was suspected by the Trump administration’s discounts on science financing.

On Tuesday, Canda stood alongside nearly twenty other scholars in the lobby of the Ripporen House office building in Capitol Hill for a look like the science fair – but with a development. Instead of students who present separation projects, the event distinguished great researchers from all over the country standing in front of the stickers that define their work – and the federal discounts that are now threatening it.

The attendees said that the event, organized by the Democrats in the House of Representatives Committee for Science, Space and Technology, was aimed at showing the type of future developments in science and medicine that may be lost due to discounts.

"These discoveries may not only save our lives, but the lives of the people we love," Adam Reese, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011, said at this event.

"All innovation that determines almost our time, every boom in my field and from my colleagues, is due to basic science research," He added.

NPR sought Comment from the White House and Republican President of the House of Representatives, Representative Brian Babin, but he did not receive immediate responses.

Chanda leads one of Response centers for the epidemic nine times funded by the National Institutes of Health It was briefly blocked. They were part of a plan to develop wide -spectrum antiviral drugs that target the types of pathogens that were likely to lead to future epidemics and slide forward all over the world to be ready for a moment when a dangerous outbreak is discovered.

"When the next epidemic occurs, we accelerate the drug, for example, Wuhan. We contain this epidemic. So it does not become a pandemic," Explain.

It is not completely sure why nih The grant has been cut. It got an e -mail that mainly says "Now after the epidemic is over, these funds are no longer required," Without another explanation, he says.

Chanda is not alone. Several NPR scientists, such as Kimiko Krieger, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Bloomberg Public Health School at Johns Hopkins University, spoke to a clear topic on the reason for their financing.

Crager is studying how a lack of some vitamins can contribute to the accumulation of DNA damage in prostate tumors in American men of African descent, who are likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer more than twice the demographics. I discovered that the National Health Institutes grants were terminated when I received an email that says her research "amorphous."

"I do not know what is not crystallized about cancer research or prostate cancer patients," She says. "I think they might not really read in my work."

Austin Baker, a professor in the Department of Maritime Affairs at the University of Rod Island, has spent more than a decade in developing tools to assess and expect the effects of harsh weather events, such as hurricanes, on the coast of southern New England. As a result, it was able to develop a "Adulteration" A tool to help emergency managers and elasticity planners make quick decisions in such cases.

"I was sitting at the house of Rod Island State, I was preparing to testify to support our Edot, when I received the email," Baker says that a notice will be received that the Ministry of Internal Security grant will be canceled. He says there was no hint before email that the project had been targeted for discounts.

He was asked if the hatred of climate change, which President Trump called it "trick," It may be a worker, as he says: "These are early warning systems. It helps emergency managers to act before infrastructure failure.

"Yes, they are driven by climate change, but they have problems today," He says, referring to the last destroyed floods in Texas, as the death toll exceeded 100.

But David Curie, Professor of Neuroscience at the Harvard University Faculty of Medicine Developing treatments for childhood deafnessHe has no doubt about the reason for reducing funding. In the case of Corey, all more than $ 2.2 billion in grants and multi -year contracts to Harvard has been frozen after the university rejected demands from the White House that it changes employment, acceptance and other policies.

Curie and his colleagues spent years studying about 200 gene that causes inherited deafness. It indicates that this type of basic research has already paid profits.

"Our work in mapping maps how these proteins work directly to possible treatments," Curie says.

Part of his research includes the use of a virus to present a healthy version of the gene to cells, allowing them to reproduce and replace the release that causes deafness. One of these genes is very large so that it does not fit with a virus, so a Korean team "I had to know a little way out, to shorten the protein in a still functional way." But without "Years, years and years of work to understand the protein structure," He says it was not possible to do this.

Reese, whose Nobel Prize -winning work showed that the universe was expanding faster and faster, his concern about "brain drain" This may result from an interruption in financing important scientific research, even if it is restored by future management.

Regarding his work, he spent the last two decades working to improve the value of the Hubble Method – a major teacher describing the speed of the universe’s expansion.

"When you go to 19 years of working on it, then go, “Oh, we will reduce the budget this year, it is a waste of this effort," He says.

"Really smart people who have opportunities, as you know, will go to the place where science is done, whether it is Europe, China or other places," He says, adding, "I definitely hear from many colleagues who say, … “I need to look, what is the plan B”"

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