U.S. judge leans towards compelling Trump to reinstate $500 million in UCLA research funding
Elle Rathbun, a sixth-year neuroscience PhD candidate at UCLA, has lost a $160,000 NIH grant that funded her study of stroke recovery treatment. Rathbun has been seeking other funding sources since the suspension of her grant, as her research is focused on a potential treatment that would be injected into the brain to help rebuild it after a stroke.
The suspended grants include studies into Parkinson's disease, cancer treatment, and nerve regeneration. The hearing was closely watched by researchers at UCLA, who have reduced operations and considered layoffs due to the crisis.
In a positive development, a federal judge indicated she is leaning towards ordering the Trump administration to restore an additional $500 million in UCLA medical research grants. The factor that influenced Judge Rita F. Lin in her ruling was the significant impact of funding cuts on critical medical research projects and the potential harm to public health advancements. The judge's potential preliminary injunction would be in place as the case proceeds through the courts.
Lydia Daboussi, a UCLA assistant professor of neurobiology, is "cautiously optimistic" about her $1-million grant being reinstated. Daboussi's lab consists of nine other people, including two PhD students and one senior scientist.
UCLA has said it does not use race in admissions and has made changes to improve campus climate for Jewish communities. The university is also negotiating with the Trump administration over its other demands, which include applying for grants taking a lot of time, slowing down progress in projects like Rathbun's.
Meanwhile, UC leaders have sued Trump for 'financial coercion' over UCLA cuts, not waiting on leaders to do so. The suit was filed by UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley professors in June. The judge's reasoning for the potential order is that the grant suspensions violate the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Trump administration has also called for UCLA to release detailed admission data, ban gender-affirming healthcare for minors, and give the government deep access to UCLA internal campus data. The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Trump to cut government grant programs involving diversity, equity, and inclusion.
UCLA's chancellor has stated that defunding medical research "does nothing" to address discrimination allegations. The judge is preparing to add UCLA's National Institutes of Health grant recipients to an ongoing class-action lawsuit. A preliminary injunction could be granted to restore $3 million in Department of Energy grants that are still frozen at UCLA.
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