Trump jeopardizes at least twenty Catalan-backed investigations

BarcelonaThe US government has decided to stop funding research projects at laboratories and hospitals abroad that until now received grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At least five top-level research institutions in Catalonia are deeply concerned about this decision, as together they account for twenty research projects that could be halted due to these cuts. These are the San Pablo Research Institute (IR Sant Pau), IrsiCaixa, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), and the Hospital del Mar Research Institute. The Catalan government is conducting a study to determine the true extent of the situation and, according to ARA, has so far received data from more than half of the 42 research centers in Catalonia.

"It's a tragedy. We still have two to three years to complete these projects. At the moment, we're anxiously awaiting any communication from the NIH, and if funding finally falls through, we'll have to find new grants," explains Jordi Surrallés, director of the Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau), which has ten ongoing studies in collaboration with biomedical institutions around the world. Most of these studies focus on Alzheimer's and its link to Down syndrome, as Sant Pau is a world leader in the field of neurology and has a specialized unit to better understand this association between the disease and the syndrome.

In fact, Sant Pau participated in the clinical trials that led to its approval in Europe. of the first drug that modifies the course of the disease. Right now, the center is participating in several studies focused on developing drugs to slow the onset of Alzheimer's, seeking new ways to prevent the disease, and finding biomarkers that indicate whether someone is at greater risk of developing it. Surrallés emphasized that they also have projects underway on other diseases, such as stroke and pulmonary embolism, which, along with Alzheimer's, have a high incidence in the United States. "Stopping funding these studies is shooting ourselves in the foot, since many people die from these diseases in the United States," he argues.

Overall, Surrallés estimates that the ten studies have a cost of $7.5 million, of which they have already received 40%. If they ultimately stop receiving the remaining 60%, the director warns that it will have a direct impact on one of the center's "areas of excellence."

"Science must be a priority"

Regarding IrsiCaixa, its director, Bonaventura Clotet, explains that the center has four projects underway with NIH funding, one of which should have received a renewal letter last week but hasn't. Although there may be a delay in payment, this research focuses on HIV and AIDS, and the Trump administration has already suspended more than 200 grants for projects in this line of research. Specifically, one of the studies in which IrsiCaixa is participating aims to develop a preventative vaccine against the infection, which would represent a paradigm shift in the fight against HIV worldwide. For Clotet, the US government's "denialism about the effects of vaccines" is behind the decision to stop funding certain projects, and he warns that in the future "there will be deaths from diseases that until now were fully controlled."

The center's director estimates that the four projects together require funding of around $6 million. For this reason, he called on European governments to allocate more money to research, since if the NIH funds are ultimately lost, the recovery in the Old Continent will not be immediate: "There will be a delay, we won't get an alternative source of funding overnight, and we'll have to start many things over again. Researchers' payments are also at risk." He also argued that governments "must get their act together and understand that science must be a priority," and proposed imaginative measures such as having a box for research centers on tax returns, just as there is one for the Church.

ISGlobal also has projects focused on vaccine development. The scientific director, Denise Naniche, explained that the center has three studies in collaboration with American institutions, one of which focuses on the response to a malaria vaccine, and the other two study the impact of certain environmental pollutants on human health. The climate crisis is one of the other lines of research. who has attacked the Trump administration the mostFor Naniche, they are currently in a "gray zone where everything is very unpredictable" and don't know if they will be able to complete the projects underway, while she already assumes that the other six studies they had planned to start will remain "pending resolution." Between the three that have started, they need $1 million.