Harvard scientists say research could be set back years after funding freeze

Harvard University professor Alberto Ascherio’s research is literally frozen.

Collected from millions of U.S. soldiers over two decades using millions of dollars from taxpayers, the epidemiology and nutrition scientist has blood samples stored in liquid nitrogen freezers within the university’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The samples are key to his award-winning research, which seeks a cure to multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. But for months, Ascherio has been unable to work with the samples because he lost $7 million in federal research funding, a casualty of Harvard’s fight with the Trump administration.

“It’s like we have been creating a state-of-the-art telescope to explore the universe, and now we don’t have money to launch it,” said Ascherio. “We built everything and now we are ready to use it to make a new discovery that could impact millions of people.” And then, “Poof. You’re being cut off.’”

The loss of an estimated $2.6 billion in federal funding at Harvard has meant that some of the world’s most prominent researchers are laying off young researchers. They are shelving years or even decades of research, into everything from opioid addiction to cancer.