A US Nobel laureate warns that federal funding such as what he and his fellow prizewinners received might not be as available in the future, the Associated Press reports.
Brandeis University's Michael Rosbash, who shared this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine with the University of Maine's Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young from Rockefeller University on their work on the circadian rhythm, said at the prize banquet that cutting research funding would hurt the US. The Trump Administration has proposed reducing NIH funding by nearly 20 percent, though lawmakers in Congress instead have suggested a funding increase.
"We benefited from an enlightened period in the postwar United States. Our National Institutes of Health have enthusiastically and generously supported basic research ... [but] the current climate in the US is a warning that continued support cannot be taken for granted," Rosbash said, according to the AP.
He previously told the Boston Globe that he didn't think his work would be funded today.
Brandeis Now adds that Rosbash also underscored the contribution of immigrants and foreigners to scientific research in the US, and noted that eight of the 10 science Nobel winners were from the US, and that four of those were immigrants or the child of immigrants.