Latest news with #researchCuts
The Guardian
03-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
EPA to launch program that lets people adopt its lab animals amid Trump cuts
The US Environmental Protection Agency is launching a new program to adopt some of its 20,000 lab animals in the wake of Trump administration plans to dramatically cut the regulator's research arm. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) nonprofit obtained and revealed an EPA document announcing the adoption program. The document announced adoptions for zebrafish and rats from an EPA lab in North Carolina. It states: 'Adopt love. Save a life. Our adoption program has been approved. Would you like to adopt?' The move is part of the fallout from broad EPA cuts targeting toxicological and other basic research work that is largely being done by the agency's office of research and development. The office is being replaced with a much smaller 'office of applied science and environmental solutions', which, Peer wrote in a statement, is focused on shorter-term projects limited to 'statutorily required functions' instead of long-term research. The move is an 'ill-advised scientific self-lobotomy', said Kyla Bennett, science policy director with Peer and a former EPA attorney. 'Instead of developing a strategic plan for meeting its scientific needs, Trump's EPA has decided to largely abandon scientific research except when it is specifically mandated by law, thus embracing some short-term savings to its long-term detriment,' Bennett said. The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration is aiming to eliminate at least 1,000 EPA scientists, or approximately three-quarters of the office of research and development's staff. The plan, however, is on hold as a legal battle plays out. The agency uses rabbits, mice, rats and other animals primarily to test the safety of chemicals and other environmental pollutants. During Trump's first term, the EPA announced a plan to reduce animal testing by 30% by 2025 and end it altogether by 2035. The Biden EPA nixed those plans, and the agency now says it will not be bound by time limits, and is following 'the best available science', Bennett said. Researchers use zebrafish to test for toxic effects of some chemicals and pollutants because of the 'many similarities between the metabolism and physiological structures of zebrafish and humans, and the nervous system structure, blood-brain barrier function, and social behavior of zebrafish', according to a peer-reviewed study. Recent research looking into the toxic effects of common plastic chemicals and how they may disrupt human's circadian rhythm used zebrafish in the research. The reduction in animal testing will 'make EPA even more dependent on research from chemical companies, which is often framed to mask, rather than identify, potential health and environmental risks', Bennett said. She added that eliminating animal research would make it more difficult for the agency to evaluate the toxicological effect of complex chemicals with several thousand variations, like Pfas. It would also kill research that relies on lab animals to understand the long-term effects of pollutants, such as particulate matter. 'The EPA is abandoning its status as a premier scientific organization,' Bennett said.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UNM post-docs forewarn threats to research at Stand Up for Science event
Graduate student Alex Connolly signs a letter to U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) as part of the New Mexico Stand Up for Science outreach on the last day of spring semester classes. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) On the last day of classes for the spring semester, organizers for the New Mexico Stand Up for Science tabled at the University of New Mexico, asking more students to join efforts to protest White House efforts to dismantle funding mechanisms for science research. 'The intent really is to make sure that people don't lose steam throughout the summer,' said Nina Christie, a post-doctoral researcher studying substance use. The group is part of a national movement seeking an expansion of research science funding and reinstating research cuts under anti-diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. UNM could face $20 million in lost funding under NIH rule The cuts, led by Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, have impacted billions of dollars in research — including a UNM neuroscience researcher studying impacts of repeated traumatic brain injuries, who spoke at an earlier protest at the New Mexico Legislature. About two dozen students stopped by over the course of 45 minutes. Some UNM employees also visited, including undergraduate advisors Madison Castiellano-Donovan and Dylan Velez. Velez told Source NM some of the psychology students whom they advise are expressing uncertainty in finding future jobs, wanting to graduate early or 'considering switching majors altogether' due to the cuts to higher education. Matison McCool, a post-doctoral researcher in substance abuse research, said lost funding will close doors for upcoming students. 'Without general training grants in place, without that infrastructure, there simply won't be pathways to get into science anymore, for people who want to do that,' he said. McCool said he also hoped the effort to organize will push the university to further protect funding. 'I want to hear concrete steps the administration is going to take and plan on taking to help continue funding researchers who lost their grants, and finding the resources for funding science,' he said. McCool said the recent 2026 Budget Request from the White House proposes Congress halve the National Science Foundation by more than $4.7 billion, and cut the National Institutes of Health budget by more than $17 billion dollars. 'That will devastate cancer trial research, substance trial use research — that is a fact,' he said. 'We cannot fund these studies that are solving these problems, people will die if these studies don't exist.' His own five-year research grant hasn't been impacted yet, but he's concerned that research will only get more limited, and he worries the grant could be rescinded at any time. 'The hardest part is looking at these White House proposed budgets and thinking 'I don't have a job in five years,'' he said. 'This may be the only science I ever get to do.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
