Researcher Timothy Koh has spent more than a decade trying to break down the science behind wounds common among some people with diabetes — inflammation so severe it can lead to amputations. But this critical research could end as soon as this summer.
Koh, a professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago, is among the researchers around the country who have been left in limbo by federal funding freezes ordered by the Trump administration.
He applied for a five-year grant renewal totaling $1.5 million through the National Institutes of Health to keep his research going. It went through a peer-review process last fall, and he expected a decision by February. But a meeting where his grant renewal would have been determined was unexpectedly canceled. He’s heard little since.
“NIH has been the biggest funder and it’s difficult, very difficult, to replace that kind of funding, especially if you’re doing research that’s considered basic and research that companies don’t see as immediately profitable for them,” Koh said. “NIH was the place where you developed new ideas, where there may not be the immediate payoff but eventually a lot of them do.”
In just four months, President Donald Trump’s crackdown on federal spending has already resulted in massive cuts to science-related federal agencies, trickling down not just to the researchers who will have to stop studies looking for solutions to pressing public health problems, but it could have wider implications for communities like Chicago. The Sun-Times spoke to researchers at two schools, one public and one private — UIC and Northwestern — to get a sense of how this is playing out.
Already, the NIH ended 694 grants — totaling $1.81 billion — between Feb. 28 and April 8, according to an analysis by the American Medical Association. Thirteen were tied to Northwestern. And more cuts could affect 2,516 current grants in Chicago, totaling $1.4 billion in funding for both universities, according to data from the federal agency. The Trump administration in February stopped NIH from reviewing grant applications, creating a funding freeze that is legally being challenged and has added to the confusion.
Then, on April 8, the Trump administration said it would freeze $790 million in research funding at Northwestern amid a civil rights investigation. That’s nearly all of Northwestern’s annual federal research funding. Northwestern, a private institution, has promised to support some research. The pledge is backed by a $14.3 billion endowment, among the 20 largest in the country, according to the 2024 annual endowment report. But UIC, a public university, will have a harder time filling the gap with a smaller endowment of $511.2 million, according to the University of Illinois Foundation. In a statement, UIC said administrators were working with its counsel to explore legal and administrative responses to grant terminations.
Researchers at both institutions say they are getting swept up in the crossfire of Trump’s ideological crusade to eliminate any hint of diversity, equity and inclusion, often referred to as DEI, in American universities. But they say their work, focused on diseases ranging from diabetes to HIV, affect a wide spectrum of Americans.
Koh said he sees his research as part of a larger effort to reduce the death rate among diabetics. But because his work isn’t tied to a device or medicine that could be perceived as profitable, he doesn’t think he could secure private funds
“If the wounds aren’t properly cared for, it can lead to amputations and once people have amputations, it’s alarming that the death rate is as bad as a lot of cancers,” Koh said.
‘Not a DEI-focused project’
After 11 years leading the largest and longest-running study researching what puts people at risk for HIV, Northwestern’s Brian Mustanski, said NIH terminated his multi-million dollar grant based on a characterization of his research that he disputes. In a notice, he said the agency told him it would not prioritize research projects based on “artificial and nonscientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives.” NIH added that DEI studies “harm the health of Americans.”
Mustanski, the director of Northwestern’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, said he is appealing.
“This was a study of drivers of HIV and substance use in young gay and bisexual men,” Mustanski said. “We also looked at things like heart disease, cancer, a whole host of issues and really addressed these critical public health challenges in this group that disproportionately experiences HIV. So it’s not a DEI-focused project.”
Because his grant was already terminated, he doesn’t think Northwestern will fund it. He has laid off about a dozen people as he tries to find outside funding.
The National Institutes of Health ended 694 grants totaling $1.81 billion between Feb. 28 and April 8, according to an analysis by the American Medical Association. UIC Professor Timothy Koh, showing a slide of tissue, had applied for a five-year grant renewal last fall but the meeting where a decision was to be made was unexpectedly canceled.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
The Trump administration has not provided clear guidance for how officials are determining which projects are labeled as DEI, said Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association.
“One of the reasons researchers are having such a terrible time is that there’s not a consistent message, there’s not a consistent process,” Benjamin said. “We believe there is a purposeful intent to create that confusion to slowwalk the grants going out the door because they ultimately want to cut the funding.”
Koh worries UIC will have an even harder time securing funding because diversity is at the root of its identity.
“And sets it apart from other institutions in Chicago, I think, as the only four-year public institution that was kind of affordable for people, for a lot of first-generation students,” he said. “So we’re in limbo.”
Beyond research labs
Cuts to federal grants have ripple effects beyond research labs, Benjamin said. In addition to the funds researchers receive, their institution negotiates grants for indirect funds to support the work. This includes everything from capital improvements to purchasing specialized equipment. NIH cut those funds way back, though a court has blocked that change.
On the Lower West Side, Leone Jose Bicchieri, of Working Family Solidarity, worries what the cuts to public health research will mean for families in Lawndale and Pilsen. The organization had teamed up with Jeni Herbert-Beirne, a professor of public health at UIC, who is researching the health effects of working jobs ranging from a street vendor to a day laborer.
“We’re the ones that get the environmental pollution and then we’re the ones working in the places that also pollute,” Bicchieri said. “So we’re getting it in our homes and then when we go to work.”
Herbert-Beirne said she was told in late April that her grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would likely not be renewed for a 10th year. She has enough funds to keep the study going through August, though she may have to pull the plug even sooner if the money dries up.
“It took us years to build this kind of trust and ability to kind of work together — the university and community partners — and to have that funding pulled is totally devastating,” Herbert-Beirne said. “We’re just really scrambling to figure if we could find funding just to sustain our infrastructure.”
At Northwestern, Mustanski said the RADAR study improved access to HIV testing and treatment in Chicago, adding that researchers administered thousands of tests each year. The study tracked 1,400 participants in Chicago, and many have shared stories about how much it meant to them — from having someone to talk through difficult times to getting access to healthcare.
“Participants have told us that’s how they got their first HIV test … through our study,” Mustanski said. “There were many people who learned for the first time that they were living with HIV through the testing that we provided, and then we were able to help support linking them to care.”
‘Swept into the crossfire’
In April, Melissa Simon, who previously headed Northwestern’s Center for Health Equity Transformation, also was issued a termination grant notice from NIH related to a study testing the hypothesis that a cohort of faculty did better medical research together in areas of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and brain, mind and behavior.
Then later that month, Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine decided to immediately close her center, one of nine shuttered amid university cutbacks. For Simon, the grant termination and the closure of her center is about more than just money.
“The science that we chose to focus … was aimed at improving the health of Americans across the three big things that hurt us the most in our economy,” Simon said. “This was not a DEI grant that got terminated wrongfully. This got swept into the crossfire.”
Simon said many in her field are at a crossroads, unsure how to continue research they see as vital to improving public health. Her study will end, but she plans to continue her research through a new effort called ELEVATE LAB.
“For people like me, this is a really important watershed moment,” she said. “For me, it’s about remembering what my North Star is and that is to lift health for all.”