Thier medical research focuses on potentially lifesaving breakthroughs in cancer treatment, and developing tools to more easily diagnose debilitating diseases. their studies in mathematics could make online systems more robust and secure.
But as the academic year opens, the work of UCLA‘s professors in these and many other fields has been imperiled by the Trump governance’s suspension of $584 million in grant funding, which University of California President James B. Milliken called a “death knell” to its transformative research.
The freeze came after a July 29 U.S. Department of Justice finding that the university had violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students by providing an inadequate response to alleged antisemitism thay faced after the Oct. 7,2023,Hamas attack.
The fight over the funding stoppage intensified Friday after the Trump administration demanded that UCLA pay a $1-billion fine, among other concessions, to resolve the accusations – and california Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will sue, calling the proposal “extortion.”
Amid heightened tensions in Westwood, thousands of university academics are in limbo.In total,at least 800 grants,mostly from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health,have been frozen.
UCLA scholars described days of confusion as they struggle to understand how the loss of grants would affect their work and scramble to uncover new funding sources – or roles that would ensure their continued pay, or that of their colleagues. While professors still have jobs and paychecks to draw on, many others, including graduate students, rely on grant funding for their salaries, tuition and healthcare.At least for the moment, though, several academics told The Times that their work had not yet be interrupted. So far, no layoffs have been announced.
NIH Funding Cuts Leave Researchers in Limbo
Researchers across the country are facing uncertainty as the impact of recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding cuts continues to ripple through universities. The cuts, initiated by the Trump administration and persisting under the current administration, have led to grant suspensions and left scientists scrambling for option funding sources.
John Di Carlo,a professor at johns Hopkins University,penned a post invoking the Franz Kafka novel “The Trial.” The unsettling tale is about a man named Josef K. who wakes up and finds himself under arrest and then on trial – with no understanding of the situation.
“Like Josef K.,the people actually affected – the public,young scientists,patients waiting for better treatments and diagnostic tools – are left asking: What crime did we commit?” wrote Di Carlo. “They are being judged by a system that no longer explains itself.”
The LinkedIn post quickly attracted dozens of comments and more than 1,000 other responses. Di Carlo, who has been working to find jobs for researchers who depend on paychecks that come from now-suspended grants, said he appreciated the support.
But, goodwill has its limits. “It doesn’t pay the rent for a student this month,” he said.
Di Carlo’s research is partly focused on developing an at-home test that would detect Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, which are on the rise. As no such product is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, he said, people who’ve experienced a tick bite have to wait for lab results to confirm their infection.
“This delay in diagnosis prevents timely treatment, allowing the disease to progress and potentially lead to long-term health issues,” he said. “A rapid, point-of-care test would allow individuals to receive immediate results, enabling early treatment with antibiotics when the disease is most easily addressed, significantly reducing the risk of chronic symptoms and improving health outcomes.”
Di Carlo lamented what he called “a continual assault on the scientific community” by the Trump administration, which has canceled billions of dollars in National Institutes of Health funding for universities across the country.
It “just … hasn’t let up,” Di Carlo said.
Scrambling for funds
Some professors who’ve lost grants have spent long hours scrambling to secure new sources of funding.
Di Carlo said he was in meetings all week to identify which researchers are affected by the cuts, and to try to figure out, “Can we support those students?” He has also sought to determine whether some