Submission + - Trump's feud with Harvard endangers 50 years of women's health samples (cnn.com) 2
quonset writes: For fifty years, Harvard has been collecting medical information and samples from female nurses. The data have led to deeper insights and contributed a better understanding into human health. However, President Trump's feud with Harvard may see all the information and samples being discarded.
Study data gathered through the years from some 280,000 nurses in the United States has contributed enormously to improving how we live. The work has informed dietary recommendations, including national dietary guidelines; led to hormonal therapies for breast cancer prevention and treatment; and contributed to research about how nutrients, inflammatory markers and heavy metals influence disease development.
Funding for the Nurses’ Health Study and its companion study for men, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, had already been abruptly withdrawn in mid-May, said Harvard nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett, who has led the studies since 1980.
Willett and his team were left scrambling to find the funds needed to protect freezers stocked with stool, urine and DNA specimens gathered from thousand of nurses for nearly five decades. Just the liquid nitrogen needed to keep the specimens frozen costs thousands of dollars a month.
“Of course, we would all love to have an agreement that lets us get on with research, education, and working to improve the health and well-being of everyone.” said Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, who has published over 2,000 papers on nutrition.
“But this can’t happen if we turn over admissions, faculty hiring and curriculum to governmental control.”
Study data gathered through the years from some 280,000 nurses in the United States has contributed enormously to improving how we live. The work has informed dietary recommendations, including national dietary guidelines; led to hormonal therapies for breast cancer prevention and treatment; and contributed to research about how nutrients, inflammatory markers and heavy metals influence disease development.
Funding for the Nurses’ Health Study and its companion study for men, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, had already been abruptly withdrawn in mid-May, said Harvard nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett, who has led the studies since 1980.
Willett and his team were left scrambling to find the funds needed to protect freezers stocked with stool, urine and DNA specimens gathered from thousand of nurses for nearly five decades. Just the liquid nitrogen needed to keep the specimens frozen costs thousands of dollars a month.
“Of course, we would all love to have an agreement that lets us get on with research, education, and working to improve the health and well-being of everyone.” said Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, who has published over 2,000 papers on nutrition.
“But this can’t happen if we turn over admissions, faculty hiring and curriculum to governmental control.”
Endowment? (Score:2)
Maybe, just maybe there's a few million from the endowment Harvard has that can go to this? To tide over things like this rather than the brinkmanship and/or holding hostage decades of research when they have the money?
Or, better yet, your university can stop discriminating based on race on admissions! You know, follow the law and the Supreme Court! What a concept!
Re: (Score:1)
If endowment money were available for this, they would've tapped it already.
Most endowments have restrictions. In most cases, the principal can't be touched, and the interest can only be used according to the donor's wishes.