NIH cuts will severely affect cancer research

I am extremely fortunate to have spent my formative childhood years in Iowa City and credit my teachers at Northwest Junior High for sparking and cultivating my love for science. My fondest memories were formed in Ecology Club, where we went geocaching in the forest, collected prairie seeds to replant in the spring, and installed birdhouses for migratory birds. The patience of my science teachers during these after-school field trips and when answering my endless questions is the reason that I became a scientist conducting medical research studying testicular tumor.

Every year in the United States, around 9,000 young men under 45 years old are diagnosed with testicular cancer, and the incidence rate in Iowa is higher than the national average. Testicular cancer forms from cells that fail to become healthy sperm and instead grow uncontrollably, forming a tumor. While these tumors often respond well to chemotherapy treatment, patients who undergo chemotherapy can suffer from lifelong complications, including neurological damage, heart disease, and infertility. Some patients’ tumors can also develop resistance to chemotherapy, drastically worsening their survival rate. Because of this, my research is focused on helping develop new, less toxic ways to treat testicular cancers, including chemo resistant tumors, by studying how they develop and respond to chemotherapy treatments.

Our lab at Cornell has made significant progress with promising results thanks to funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other sources. For example, NIH funding helped support the creation of a mouse model that develops testicular tumors resembling the tumors in human patients. This mouse model helps us examine the development of testicular tumors and the effectiveness of different treatments. Mouse models have also helped us identify a less toxic approach for targeting testicular tumors and is effective at slowing tumor growth, which promises the development of new treatments.

Recently, we have been investigating the roles in testicular cancers of a specific class of molecules called micro RNAs. Clinicians recently discovered a specific micro RNA found in high levels in patients with testicular cancers, serving as a potential method to diagnose testicular cancers. Our lab is now exploring the function of this micro RNA in tumor growth and development, which we hypothesize will reveal new therapeutic targets.

Our research on testicular tumors will help develop new, more effective, less toxic treatments, which will improve the standard of care for thousands of patients every year. NIH funding allows us to conduct our research; for example, it provides the materials and equipment necessary for our experiments, supports the facility and staff that cares for the mouse models, funds the facilities that safely process hazardous waste, and supports the research staff within the lab. All of these will be limited by the proposed budget cuts, which will severely affect my research and the research of other scientists studying the development and treatment of debilitating diseases including other cancers, neurological disorders, infectious diseases, and diabetes.

This is important work, which is not possible without the support of the NIH. In Iowa alone, the NIH has provided over $200 million in funding for researching cancer and heart disease, the leading causes of mortality in Iowa. I, along with thousands of other researchers, are committed to improving the lives of patients with our research. But we rely on the support from the federal government. Thus, I hope you will join us in supporting our medical research, either by reaching out to your local representatives and explaining why NIH funding is critical to Iowa City or by joining our Citizens for Science pledge at tiny.cc/sciencepledge.

Michelle Liu is a graduate student at Cornell University and grew up in Iowa City. She is participating in the McClintock initiative, which aims to increase awareness on the value of federally funded scientific research in response to the recent actions of the current administration to defund and interrupt that research.