Harvard researcher's work gives ‘hope' for Parkinson's. But the feds cut his funding
When Bence Ölveczky came to the U.S. from Hungary at the age of 28, it was the first place he didn't feel like a foreigner.
'This is a unique country because it's a country of immigrants. And that's why I felt at home; because nobody cared,' he told MassLive, during a recent interview in his office.
The U.S. drew him because of its 'unparalleled scientific infrastructure' and collaboration between the government and its universities.
However, it feels like the climate is changing.
'It's made America great,' Ölveczky, who holds a Ph.D. , said. 'And now we are sort of willingly giving up on that. That's the tragic part of this.'
As a professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, he is feeling the ways the Trump administration is attacking not only the institution where he works but also his research.
" The research that we are doing — it is not Harvard research," he said. ' We are doing government research.'
The Trump administration has frozen or cut nearly $3 billion in federal funding to Harvard, citing antisemitism at the university. The administration has claimed the university failed to protect Jewish students, particularly in the wake of the war in Gaza.
Read more: Federal judge delays decision over Trump admin barring Harvard foreign students
At the same time, the federal government has revoked most of the institutions' research grants.
This has a significant impact on Ölveczky's lab, which uses rats to better understand how the brain learns new motor skills and generates more complex behaviors.
It also has the potential to affect an entire generation of researchers who may decide not to come to the U.S. or to Harvard because of the federal government's actions, he said.
Two of his federal grants were terminated by the National Institutes of Health in May.
His lab focuses on addressing the function of the basal ganglia, which goes awry in people with Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, according to a court filing in an ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration.
With more time, his work could help inform rehabilitation therapeutics for people with those diseases or even those who have had strokes, he said.
'It's an inspiration to me that we could help in the treatment of these,' he said.
Taking an elevator to the basement in a Harvard building, passing through white door after white door, there are several rooms filled with rats.
Some are kept in clear cages behind closed cabinets.
Opening one of the cabinets, two black and white rats in separate cages appear. One with wires attached to its head immediately walks to the front of its clear cage to put its nose and minuscule teeth through a hole at the front.
Other rats are stacked high, while not undergoing testing or recuperating from surgery, sometimes even doubled up in a cage for socialization, snuggled up next to each other.
Each rat is taught a task. One task is pressing down on a joystick at a certain angle for a reward.
'Some of these animals have been in their training for a year or more,' Ölveczky said.
The rats do these tasks so the researchers can better understand how complex behaviors are generated by the brain.
However, the lab is also researching how autism affects brain function and behavior. They had planned to apply for federal funding for this work, which has been privately funded that is ending this year.
Read more: As federal funding cuts hit Harvard, a private investment firm and other donors step up
In collaboration with the University of Washington, Stanford University and the Salk Institute, the lab has also created a virtual rodent controlled through an artificial neural network, according to Ölveczky's court affidavit.
It is able to be trained to mimic the behavior of real animals and has the potential to transform how researchers study the brain by comparing hypothesis testing through the virtual rodent and juxtaposing it to experiments in real animals, he said.
By studying rats at the Ölveczky Lab, it is also ultimately about giving families who are struggling with Parkinson's or stroke hope for recovery, he said.
'To some degree, knowing that there are people out there working on the mechanisms that underlie the disease, particularly for neurodevelopmental disorders like autism or childhood disorders ... I think give folks hope,' he said
There is so much more that could be learned in the lab, Ölveczky said.
Nobody knew that studying the saliva of a lizard would lead to the 'most revolutionary obesity drug,' he said, referring to Ozempic.
'The bargain this country made was to invest in basic research and understand that the rewards are going to accumulate over time. And this is also why normal tax-paying Americans won't necessarily feel the immediate effects of any of these funding cuts,' he said.
'What you would have to do is compare the alternative reality — the reality when there was no research — versus the reality where there is research, and those two are very different. But that would become apparent in some years from now," he said.
Ölveczky has been looking for non-federal funding. However, that is even more difficult as other institutions are experiencing a scaling back of funding as well.
The lab may not be able to finish its experiments, analyze its data or write publications without federal funding, according to Ölveczky's affidavit.
Slashing research funding isn't about saving money for the U.S., Ölveczky said. In fact, it has the opposite effect, he said.
'This is the most wasteful thing that's happened to biomedical research. You build up a research enterprise, and it takes an incredible amount of money to gain the trust of the world, frankly. Everybody's coming here,' he said.
'The fact that this is done in the name of sort of eliminating waste is just absurd,' he said.
Using 'rainy day' funds given to him from his promotion a decade ago, he has been able to keep staff on — but these funds will dry up within the year, he said.
He runs a lab with 10 to 12 people. His grants largely funded the salaries of postdoctoral students and technicians, reagents, animal care costs, instruments and publication costs.
Being forced to let them go would be devastating, as they have institutional knowledge about the lab and how it works. Even if he were to later find funding, those people would be difficult to replace, and ultimately it would take time and more money to get them up to speed, he said in an affidavit.
Read more: 'Far reaching consequences' — UMass Amherst sounds the alarm amid federal uncertainty
In addition to potential layoffs, around 100 rats would also have to be killed because the lab won't have the funding to keep going.
He said he refuses 'to believe that people in Congress don't see' the impact the funding cuts will have on research.
'I hope we can reverse course, but the worry I have is when will some of these things become irreversible?' he said.
Even if the cuts at Harvard don't happen, the proposed cuts at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation through President Donald Trump's budget are going to be 'devastating,' Ölveczky said.
'There are two things going on — Harvard being targeted for political reasons and the whole scientific enterprise across the country being decimated. And that's going to have incredibly negative effects on the prosperity and the ability to push innovation and grow,' he said.
It isn't like the United States is alone in its scientific progress; other countries like the U.K., Portugal, Sweden and Denmark are able to provide similarly enriching research environments, he said.
It is challenging to encourage students and researchers to come to Harvard right now.
'Fundamentally, my biggest concern with this whole situation is that we're losing a generation of scientists,' Ölveczky said.
There are postdoctoral students in his lab who are 'sacrificing a lot' to be in his lab, when they could work in the private research space and make more money.
'They're really devoted to pushing the frontiers of science,' he said. 'And those guys are being discouraged.'
Read more: As Trump cuts funding, these Harvard scholars consider leaving US — and academia
That is especially true for international students at Harvard, as the Trump administration has attempted to block Harvard international students from entering the country or enrolling at the institution.
'I have an incoming graduate student from Taiwan, who's phenomenal by all accounts, and I can't encourage him about this situation because the degree of uncertainty and anxiety associated with this whole situation is not something that I would necessarily want for myself if I had other options,' Ölveczky said.
He is settled in the U.S. now as an American citizen. However, only a few short years ago, that wasn't the case.
If he were 28 years old again and making the move again out of Hungary for his doctoral degree, he said there would be 'no chance' of him coming to the U.S.
These US colleges are among the top 100 best global universities, US News says
'Far reaching consequences' — UMass Amherst sounds the alarm amid federal uncertainty
MIT joins group of universities suing the DOD over funding cuts
As federal funding cuts hit Harvard, a private investment firm and other donors step up
20 NIH grants restored to UMass system after judge rules against Trump admin
Read the original article on MassLive.
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