Massachusetts medical school lays off, furloughs 200 workers amid NIH funding cuts

UMass Chan Clinical School has laid off or furloughed employees as the campus grapples with cuts to NIH research and federal funding uncertainty The health school which received million in National Institutes of Strength funding last year is now reportedly facing a million shortfall in NIH funding due to long delays in funding new grants since the Trump administration took over UMass Chan as a product of the shortfall and uncertainty has laid off or furloughed workers Also the incoming Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences class was significantly reduced faculty recruitment has been paused and all hiring and discretionary spending has been frozen The Herald previously disclosed that UMass Chan had rescinded provisional admission offers to several dozen PhD applicants to the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences for this upcoming fall Research brings hope to the human condition and it is shocking to an academic district like ours that research would be attacked particularly by folks who believe that America should be the best UMass Chan Therapeutic School Chancellor Michael Collins declared during an event with Gov Maura Healey earlier this week The governor visited UMass Chan to highlight the negative impacts of Trump s cuts to NIH funding Healey met with senior leaders and researchers about how NIH cuts hurt their lifesaving work in advancing gene therapy rare affection research digital medicine and neuroscience The governor toured the Paul J DiMare Center the new development and research building that will help expand neurodegenerative and genetic diseases research including ALS We need to make clear what s at stake here Healey commented The funding cuts are very extensive including supporting critical work in gene therapy rare malady research HIV research digital medicine neuroscience and more UMass Chan has held groundbreaking clinical trials of new genetic therapies for devastating conditions like ALS and so several other diseases But this kind of progress is now at threat and with that hope is being stripped away from patients and families These are cuts to science cuts to research and cuts that will be irretrievable if something isn t done to reverse them the governor commented Related Articles NCAA hockey OT goal lifts BU into the Frozen Four UMass falls just short UMass Amherst faces Department of Schooling research for violent antisemitic assault UMass Chan rescinds graduate admission offers implements hiring freeze Unavoidable period of uncertainty Howie Carr UMass is yet another den of high-pension hacks More than half of UMass Chan s students practice in Massachusetts after graduation With more than employees the school one of the largest employers in Central Massachusetts and an fundamental anchor of the region s life sciences ecosystem creating more than billion in total annual economic impact Last month UMass Chan rescinded the provisional admission offers to several dozen PhD applicants The med school at the time cited the uncertainty at the federal level as the Trump administration implements widespread cuts Personnel noted that the federal proposal to cut and cap indirect NIH rates would outcome in an annual loss of to million that UMass Chan relies upon to endorsement its biomedical research programs Herald file photoChancellor Michael Collins Chris Christo Boston Herald File