Amid uncertainty in university federal funding, the National Institutes of Health’s $8 million grant sparked optimism for USC scientists developing a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s.
To the scientists leading the Alzheimer’s research initiative at USC, this NIH grant “means that we are doing good science. It means that our peers appreciate the work we do and think that this is a worthy goal to study,” said Hussein Yassine, a neurology professor directing the team.
The grant will support Yassine’s research team in creating a drug to target a trigger of brain inflammation in Alzheimer’s.
Beyond USC scientists, the NIH research grant has inspired hope in students, too.
Caylin Mobley, a junior studying environmental studies who has a family history of Alzheimer’s, said, “I have concerns about [Alzheimer’s] being hereditary. I don’t want anybody else in my family to go through that. So if there were a pill or medicine or something to help prevent that, that would honestly mean the world to me.”
Federal funding for research in STEM fields and medicine have faced steep cuts this year.
Colleges and universities across the country spent the summer entangled in legal battles after the Trump administration froze millions of dollars in research funding, citing what it called ‘woke’ ideology and alleging that university administrators failed to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestine campus protests during the 2024 spring semester.
In a statement issued in mid-July, Interim President Beong-Soo Kim addressed USC’s risk of losing government research grants.
“The ultimate impact of these changes is difficult to predict, but for a university of our scale, the potential annual revenue loss in federally sponsored research funding alone could be $300 million or more.”
After losing over $580 million in research grants at UCLA in July, a San Francisco district judge ruled on Monday that the NIH, Department of Defense, and Department of Transportation must restore funding withheld from UC campuses.
While the future of federal funding for many universities remains uncertain, this week signified a change in the tide.
The NIH grant is a beacon of hope for USC scientists, opening the door for future research possibilities. “Of course, I think we should not give up. We should keep applying. We should improve our science, and we should diversify … we need to keep going,” said Yassine.