The following is an excerpt from the Boston Globe article that originally ran on December 5, 2025
“This wasn’t about Massachusetts saying Massachusetts wants more money,” said Auchincloss, whose office touted the NIH director’s visit as his first to a congressional Democrat’s district. “This was about great scientists representing great scientific institutions saying we want the best science to win.”
Bhattacharya also toured the Broad Institute in Cambridge, a research center that received $240 million last year in federal funds, mostly from NIH.
Edward Coppinger, head of government affairs for MassBio, a trade group for the life sciences industry, said he and others in the morning session were disappointed by Bhattacharya’s assertion that the NIH’s overall funding had stayed the same, given numerous reports that clinical trials were being canceled and the number of research projects being funded has declined.
“It was smoke and mirrors,” he said.
Coppinger said Bhattacharya didn’t seem to address concerns raised by some that morale is “incredibly low” among scientists.
“We have people on the verge of breakthroughs with clinical trials that aren’t getting funded,” Coppinger said. “It was a difficult pill for a lot of the people in the room to swallow, that they don’t know what the future holds.”
UMass Chan Medical School Chancellor Dr. Michael Collins attended the morning meeting to communicate a dire situation. The medical school typically receives around $300 million in NIH funding annually. This year, NIH changes mean that figure will likely fall under $220 million.
Collins shared with Bhattacharya the stories of two UMass Chan researchers — one accomplished, the other just starting out. Neither received funding this year.
“I was pointing out to the director there is great concern among scientists,” Collins said, adding: “If the practice continues, we could lose a whole generation of scientists. And it will take us a couple of generations to build it back.”