--- title: "Trump Administration Throws Cancer Research Into Turmoil" description: "During Donald Trump's draconian first-week rollbacks, cancer research and other crucial medical projects have been paused indefinitely." date: "2025-01-28" modified: "2025-01-28" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/trump-cancer-research" categories: - "Cancer" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" tags: - "cancer research" - "donald trump" - "hhs" - "nih" --- # Trump Administration Throws Cancer Research Into Turmoil ![As part of the second Trump Administration's diversity witchhunt, cancer research and other crucial projects have been paused indefinitely.]() *\Image: Chip Somodevilla via Getty / Futurism\* The second Trump administration's draconian rollbacks have put cancer research and other crucial government-funded medical projects on the chopping block. In one of his first post-inauguration acts, Donald Trump ordered the Department of Health and Human Services — which oversees the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration — to [pause all its outside communications](). As [*Mother Jones*]() and [*Science* magazine report](), that directive has sown confusion and chaos at NIH, where funding meetings have at the same time been indefinitely suspended. The NIH, as the [world's largest public funder of biomedical research](), requires [multiple meetings]() to get everything from grant proposals to funding off the ground. After Trump took office for the second time, medical researchers working with the NIH saw all their meetings abruptly canceled. Cancer researcher Chrystal Starbird of the University of North Carolina's Medical Center was preparing to sit on her first NIH grant review panel later this month when she got an email telling her, essentially, not to show up. "I’ve never seen a complete pause like this as part of a transition," the researcher told *Mother Jones*. The Monday after that coverage broke, the acting director of the NIH [told employees]() that ongoing clinical trials would be continuing — shortly before the [White House issued an order]() pausing *all* federal grants and loans, save for those that go to Social Security and Medicare. With that one-two punch, the state of funding for any new trials — and for billions of dollars worth of other important programs, including foreign aid — remains on hold, its future uncertain. Emily Gillespie, a speech-language pathologist and professor at Emory University had just had a $2.5 million funding proposal that was getting ready to be approved when the initial order came down last week. That council meeting was also canceled, Gillespie told *Mother Jones*, and there's no telling when or if it will be rescheduled. "It was, to put it mildly, quite a letdown," the researcher said. "It’s really frustrating because it’s very hard to plan." Ironically, this bizarre suspension of NIH research may end up putting the US behind China and other science rivals. "This kind of disruption could have long ripple effects," University of Pittsburg opioid addiction researcher Jane Liebschutz told *Science* after the pause was first enacted. "Even short delays will put the United States behind in research." Along with harming national competitiveness, this ill-conceived suspension is, as Liebschultz said, sowing a "lot of uncertainty, fear, and panic" among the medical research world — and the longer it goes on, the more that chaos will grow. **More on Trump dystopia:** [*Trump Admin Announces Plans to Build Database of Migrant DNA*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()