Across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending required under the Budget Control Act of 2011 (.pdf) are set to take effect a week from today. Yesterday, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, and others warned that the budget sequester would "slow scientific progress, delay clinical trials, and put a generation of young researchers at risk if NIH's $31 billion budget for this year is trimmed by $1.5 billion."
A group of researchers from universities around the country have created a series of videos highlighting the far-reaching impact that the funding cuts imposed by the sequester will have on the nation’s ability to discover, innovate, educate and maintain its scientific and technological leadership.
In this video, Melinda Crommie, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford, discusses her research on the tissue engineering of muscle at the Palo Alto VA Hospital and speaks out in defense of funding for scientific and medical research. As she explains, her work has helped veterans home from deployment with battlefield injuries and led to the creation of a company.
Previously: Why basic research is the venture capital of the biomedical world, Future of medical research is at risk, says Stanford medical school dean and The economic benefits of publicly funded medical research
