Renowned inventor David Walt, who was awarded a presidential medal in January for his breakthrough inventions in genetic screening and disease diagnosis, is now grappling with a suddenly halted government contract. His latest work includes early detection of Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, aiming to develop new drugs to manage the debilitating loss of muscle control from that condition.
However, on Tuesday, Walt received an alarming update. The Department of Health and Human Services ordered a halt on his $650,000 government contract, a move to force Harvard University to comply with the Trump administration’s demands. This unexpected event puts Walt’s ALS research in jeopardy.
Potential Impact on ALS Research
“Patients will suffer unnecessarily and some will die unnecessarily,” said Walt, a professor of biologically inspired engineering at Harvard Medical school. He indicated that unless alternative funding is found, his important research will come to an end.
Walt’s project is not the only one caught in the middle of an escalating political and legal fight over the government’s ability to dictate conditions to private universities. The White House has raised issues with Harvard University over alleged inaccurate and incomplete disclosures regarding funding from foreign sources.
Harvard University’s Stand
The Trump administration claims that it aims to protect Jewish students on college campuses. However, Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, disagreed with the approach, stating that the university is willing to cooperate with the government but its demands won’t address antisemitism effectively. Harvard University expressed concern that the White House was seeking control over university operations, including staff hiring, student admissions, and ideological diversity management. The school vowed not to “surrender its independence or its constitutional rights.”
In response, the government halted more than $2.2 billion in contracts and grants to Harvard, a move that has put countless scientific projects at risk, though funding for hospitals affiliated with the university remains unaffected.
Implications for Research and Development
Prior to the funding freeze, the federal government had pledged $2.5 billion for over a thousand research projects at Harvard. Nearly half of these were already underway, with most of the funding coming from the National Institutes of Health. These resources support critical studies on infectious diseases, pediatric health, and the impact of aging.
- Donald Ingber, the founding director of Harvard’s Wyss Institute, received stop-work orders for two contracts amounting to approximately $20 million. These were related to research for human organ chips – devices mimicking real organs that could potentially replace animal testing in drug development.
- Harvard’s School of Public Health also received stop-work orders for at least three contracts and grants, including one for $60 million for tuberculosis research.
The funding freeze also poses a significant threat to international student enrollment, according to Stephanie Simon, a spokesperson for Harvard. Federal funding makes up 46% of the public health school’s budget, and the school anticipates more stop-work orders coming.
While some staff has been temporarily moved to other projects, Walt emphasizes that this is merely a stop-gap measure and is not sustainable unless the money starts flowing again. The funding pause, he warns, will “jeopardize the scientific workforce and will cause huge damage to the economy.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
