Funding cuts endanger medical advances

Approaching the clinic room, I heard harsh coughs. Inside, I saw a girl, 7 or 8, her neck and chest muscles straining to pull in air. I smelled the grape-like odor of Pseudomonas bacteria from her foul, gray-green sputum. I learned that she had an inherited disease, cystic fibrosis (CF), and despite our best medical efforts, she would not live beyond her teens. I was a third-year medical student at the University of Iowa; today, she is still burned deep in my memory.

Years later, when I joined the faculty at the University of Iowa, I cared for people hospitalized with CF and studied their disease in my lab. Our research and that of others revealed how CF mutations destroy the lung and enabled us to repair CF defects in the lab, paving the way for development of highly effective medicines that dramatically improve the lives of most patients. People with CF are now getting on with their lives, running cross country, getting married, having children. For a disease that claimed teens, the new medicines provide many with a future that may extend to old age.

Research has also touched me personally. When my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, she benefited from several medical advances, including participation in a clinical drug trial that helped her stay the loving person I knew, even though brain metastases threatened her spirit. She still died too soon, 18 years ago. Since then, there has been incredible progress from cancer research, but we have further to go.

What does it take to develop effective treatments for devastating diseases?

First, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports fundamental research in every disease field from diabetes to Alzheimer’s to asthma. They fund work that often takes years, yields unexpected discoveries, and creates transformative new tools and approaches. The results produce a broad scientific knowledge base that underlies medical advances. No company or disease-focused organization can sustain such an all-encompassing portfolio or long-term effort in the face of market pressure or narrow therapeutic mandates.

Second, our universities serve as the cornerstone of medical and technological discovery. Time and again, they have delivered spectacular advances, including the cure of 90% of children with the most common form of leukemia and the dramatic reduction in death rate from heart disease and stroke. Our universities provide specialized facilities and an agile, highly skilled network of scientists. These scientists’ curiosity and drive fuel life-changing medical breakthroughs. Importantly, they also train future scientists and engineers who will produce the next waves of discovery and innovation.

Medical research has benefitted every Iowan. However, many people remain in desperate need of new treatments.

Recent funding cuts for the NIH and our universities will devastate progress. These cuts will undermine the foundation of medical discovery and innovation that is America’s tradition and pride. They will erode the hopes of so many Iowans waiting for cures as well as those who do not yet know they need this research.

We must not surrender to funding cuts for medical research. If we allow this to happen, it may not be possible to rebuild. I urge you to vigorously push back. The most effective means of preventing destructive policies will be the sound of your voices. Contact your senators and representatives to emphasize the critical importance of funding the NIH, our universities, and medical research.

Please put the lives of your family, my family, all Iowans, and all people first.

Michael Welsh, MD Dr. Welsh was born and raised in rural Iowa near Haverhill, attended the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, completed additional clinical and research training in California and Texas, and has been Professor of Internal Medicine at Iowa since 1981. These views are his own, not those of the University of Iowa.