STAT News – Biotech
NIH restrictions on foreign research partnerships significantly impacted 1 in 4 U.S. scientists
Andres Vidal-Gadea’s neuroscience research was going well. A molecular neuroethologist at Illinois State University, he studies the function of genes, sussing out ways to stop the progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. To do so, Vidal-Gadea would knock out genes in nematodes, then have those worms attempt to burrow in dirt or go for a swim to see happened to their muscles.
Vidal-Gadea was garnering reliable funding from the National Institutes of Health along with a steady stream of publications. But he increasingly was getting a critique from grant reviewers: It was time to move from nematodes into mice, to see if his observations held in animals more closely related to humans — a necessary step to move any insights into human trials. So, he searched for potential collaborators who had the right kinds of mice, and could do the experiments he needed.