I recently returned from Washington, D.C., where I was pleased to see something uncommon right now: bipartisan support for biomedical research. I want to applaud it and call out what WaNPRC is doing to continue to deserve that support.
I heard Republicans and Democrats alike praise the benefits of research at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing entitled: Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation. Both the chair and vice chair, Sen. Susan Collings (R) Maine and Sen Patty Murray (D) Washington, spoke forcefully on the need for the federal government to continue funding biomedical research.
Senator Collins pointed out that every dollar of funding from the National Institutes of Health generates new economic activity of more than $2.50. But the imperative to keep investing is “not just about scientists and researchers and economic activity,” she said.
“If clinical trials are halted, research is stopped. And laboratories are closed. Effective treatments and cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s, Type 1 Diabetes, childhood cancers, and Duchene’s Muscular dystrophy will be delayed or not discovered at all. We must preserve and strengthen America’s leadership for the sake of families all across this country,” she said.
Senator Murray concurred, pointing to the obvious benefits of government-backed research. “Those investments have paid off in so many ways. Not just billions in economic activity, hundreds of thousands of jobs and a medical research enterprise that is the envy of the world. They’ve also paid off with genuine miracles. Cures that were once impossible, treatments that were once unthinkable. These are investments that give patients hope for the future, that give them back a live derailed by a disease, that give people precious more time with their loved ones. Which is why I am so deeply alarmed that President Trump has taken a wrecking ball to our biomedical research enterprise.”
Senator Murray was referring to attempts to gut funding by cutting indirect costs that provide the very buildings and equipment and other support that researchers need to do this work, and by attempts to slash contracts and gut agencies that fund research and protect public health.
As I sat in the chamber, I was deeply moved by the personal story of one witness at the hearing. Emily Stenson is a mom whose daughter Charlie was three when she was diagnosed with cancer. With Charlie, now five, on her lap, Ms. Stenson testified that her daughter, whose cancer is in remission, was benefiting from a new mRNA-backed test to detect relapse. A test discovered through research at Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington.
“We first learned about this test in 2023, and knowing it’s almost within reach brings us so much hope. It’s real proof that continued research doesn’t just change lives—it saves them,” she said. Then she added, “…if you were in my shoes, you would want to know that everything possible was being done to save your child or grandchild…. Cuts to medical research are not just numbers on a spreadsheet—they are stolen chances, unfinished stories, and futures left unrealized… That is why I am asking you today: please continue to fund and prioritize pediatric medical research. Every investment you make saves lives, protects futures, and gives children like Charlie a fighting chance to grow up and thrive.”
At WaNPRC, we are deeply motivated by the impact our research has on human and animal health. Some of us are motivated by personal experience, having benefited from that research.
And while the administration vows to phase out animal testing requirements for certain treatments, I believe we can be part of a future that contributes to reaching the goal of using New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) that can reduce animal testing. Right now, it’s not clear if NAMs can ever fully replace animal testing, but it’s becoming clearer that it can help reduce it. Examples include using Artificial Intelligence, “organs on a chip” to recreate what happens in a body’s organs, or 3D cell cultures that mimic the structure of organs. These are great ideas, but they aren’t full realized yet. These technologies cannot replace animal models or replicate the complex biological systems such as the immune system, metabolic processes and the brain.
To help get there, we need to validate these alternative approaches and WaNPRC can and will be a party to research to prove these approaches – and others that may be discovered. To accelerate this, WaNPRC is planning to offer a NAM Ignition Award. The purpose of this award will be to focus on nonhuman primate models to support our mission in the 3Rs of animal welfare. We anticipate these projects will significantly assist the development, validation and scaling of non-animal approaches.
But it will take the continued bipartisan support and federal investment to get there. I look forward to WaNPRC contributing to that future.